Summer intruded on the winter night.

No leaves shook in the trees, but the streetlights on the sidewalks

still belonged to the summer calm,

quietly enticing the sleepless to a walk that might

ease their troubled minds.

There was a winter wind that,

instead of hindering the unlucky passersby,

now played lightly with the tips of their hair.

Then the rain started.

Barely a sprinkling,

it was there to remind those jealous of death

that hope had returned.

that while they would have to stay strong for just a little longer,

dreams could be found in the dark once more.

It made the city lack its usual sense of separation.

The skyline had been romanced with a glass of wine.

Still no one exchanged looks,

but all were entranced with their own peaceful convictions.

The shrubs around the buildings didn’t resemble walls for once.

They greeted the wind with polite rustles,

mimicking the beachgrass from August midnights.

Even the long-dead trees gave brief illusions

of silhouetted animation.

And although it was a moment that stirred blithe memories,

it fled and was gone.

And those who breathed it were reprimanded once more

by that harsh and iconoclastic mother that is

Reality.

Feb 21, 2002