Haibun: Night Sky Traffic

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This is day 26 of Days of Unreason:

“On some clear nights in the country the stars can exhaust us.” – Jim Harrison

 

On clear nights in the winter we go out on an upper deck on the back of our house and gaze at the night sky.  It’s a spectacle, albeit a dim one compared to what we might have if modern mankind weren’t so damned afraid of the dark.  We go out with beverages and, on cooler nights, blankets.  We kick back in resin Adirondack chairs and soak it in.  As the night sky slowly, ever so slowly, drifts by, the stars appear static.  It belies the fact that what we are watching is freeway traffic at ultra-light speed.  When we go in at the end of the night, we turn on as few lights as possible… sometimes none at all, and we head to a sound, sound sleep.  I’ve never been certain if we are lulled by the peacefulness of the night sky, or exhausted by the marauding stars.

winter starlight watch
tiny lights road warriors
exhaust us tonight

 

A little over a year ago, I joined Jillys2016 in a challenge called “28 Days of Unreason.”  She culled quotes from the poems of Jim Harrison in a book called Songs of Unreason.  We used the quotes as prompts; diving boards suspended over the abyss of poetry.  Jill is revisiting unreason, and I am skipping gleefully along.  Come and join the fun!