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When the Lights Stop Crying

Looking up at the two spherical lights hanging above our dining room table, seeing rain drip from tree leaves through the window behind the lights, it looks like the raindrops fall from the lights themselves. Like tears from a giant, fluorescent doll.

I'm lying on the couch across the room wondering when the rain will stop, knowing I need it to stop before I can get out and complete today's tasks, hoping it won't so that I can't. Content to do nothing.

The city's on hold today. Streets may as well be shut down. Everyone inside their houses and their heads, dealing with issues of the day or of a lifetime. At least that's how I imagine everyone from my couch.

When the rain stops and the sun comes out, I shut the lights over the dining room table. They've cried enough for one day, those lights. They need to sleep for a while and cool down, whether people remain indoors or go out.

8 comments:

  1. Everyone has such different ways of dealing with these things.

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  2. Poignant - and the imagery is pretty vivid, Nicely done.

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  3. Wonderfully written Richard, the second paragraph in particular rings so true about how most people feel sometimes.

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  4. Read "city's on hold" as "city's on holiday". Why, I don't know.

    Really like the second paragraph. I've had days like that.

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  5. I love the layers in this one. The top layer is a very pleasing descriptive passage. But the middle layer makes me wonder why these images, why those analogies, and the bottom is very dark indeed. Excellent stuff.

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  6. Lovely imagery in this piece Richard. What a great line this was 'Like tears from a giant, fluorescent doll.'

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  7. Nice imagery—and it sounds like a good way to spend a lazy afternoon, playing imagination games with the interior lighting and waiting for the rain to let up. But sooner or later, the rain does stop and those things have to be addressed. (Rats!)

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