writer in the dark

city girl

-

the night is quiet as you step out into the biting cold. wisps of breath swirl in front of your face as you breathe in the silence of a sleeping city. the air feels calm in a way your mind hasn’t been for a very long time. the world seems an alternate universe away from your responsibilities. there is no busy in the darkness. your problems have melted into the horizon with the setting sun, put to sleep by a moonlit blanket of blue.

alone, isolated, the world belongs to no one but you. streets alight with neon footprints of journeys before, luminous shadows passing your peripheral vision.

city girl, how long have you been held down by the circumstances that seek to chain you? how long has the weight of the battles you fought worn you down, strained your starving shoulders? the path your future marks for you sings with promise, yet you cannot hear it through the chaos of the day. you can only struggle to hold yourself up, eyes trained on the next step ahead, one foot in front of the other.

here, now, you are weightless. you are strong. there is no traffic, no to-do’s. nothing you are running late for. the tension built up in your consciousness disappears, a song that died on its crescendo, waiting for nothing. your skin glows with starlight. your feet lets go of gravity, taking you through the starry sky. higher and higher, until you merge with the planets and the solar system, a meteorite away from the world and its cacophony of responsibilities.

here, you are reminded that your blood carries stardust. even as your feet return to concrete reality, the strength of the universe is luminescent in your eyes. you push another hour into the night, remembering. you will get through this.