One Night

The clouds are lazy tonight. I like that.

Cicadas are out in full force. They're finding their cadence, learning their rhythm, earning the percussion they've so mastered, and yet, they don't even care what I'm thinking.

It's quiet out here on the porch. I can feel the warmth from my body dissolving into the cool concrete. I kind of like that.

I keep thinking that it isn't so hard to see in the dark... if you just quit looking for the light. It's true.

The air smells good. The rain moved in, lingered, and moved on. It left its mark, though. It's still hanging around, waiting on the leaves, on the grass, in the soil. It's waiting to change.

The moon rose late. It's fat, lethargic and ambivalent. Still, it's pushing the shadows of the few tall oaks farther across the field than they could ever fall. Think about that for a season or two.

This is just one night in your life... I know that.

But it's one night in your life when I know that you sleep soundly, secure, and peaceful... just twenty steps away.

That's why I breath in and out everyday, just so you know.

Because one night in your life is every night in mine.

A Little While

 

I hope one day you'll remember tonight.

You & your Brother were fast asleep, the distant sounds of Scooby Doo falling on ears that had long since retired. I pulled your covers up, kissed your foreheads, and quietly closed the door. I then went where I go when I feel at peace with the world.

The sky was a menagerie of lonesome clouds and winking stars. My kind of night.

I stood on the front stoop enjoying the unseasonably warm air and lamented on the Saturday looming ahead. Everyone loves the weekend, I know. I just don't like the weekends when you have to go back, I suppose.

Leaning against the porch post, watching the little valley below rise and fall, I felt the incredible need to reach my hand out and steal a little moonlight.

That's when I heard that tell-tale click.

The door behind me opened and you wandered out.

"Daddy? Are you out here?"

"Yea, Baby. Are you OK?"

"Yea, just can't sleep."

"I'm sorry. It's warm, you can come out here with me."

"What are you doing, Daddy?"

"Honestly? Just trying to hold a little moonlight in my hand."

"Can I do that?"

"Well, you can try."

And you did.

We stood there for several minutes, watching the light that came from our sun bounce off the moon and find a little bit of rest in our milky palms. 

"Daddy, can we hold the moonlight all night?"

"No, Frog. But we can for a little while."

Then you smiled.