...on a lighter note...(pretentious drivel)

The DC streetlamps hum with a dingy orange glow. This light results from a wavelength developed specifically by government scientists in the 1960's for the city of Washington, D.C. to illustrate that even warm colors (red, orange, yellow) can be cold and sinister. The embers of an extinguished campfire emit a smoldering reminder of the shadows it once cast on the forest floor. The warmth and light have reached the limit of detection. Such is the light of a DC street lamp.

The ill defined shadows cast by DC streetlamps move contrary to their objects. For example, a man out for an evening stroll may see shadows adjusting in a strobe-like fashion with the furthest extended shadow behind him lasting a bit longer than expected. Suddenly, surprise overtakes the man when the shadow snaps to his front, implying that the paces intended to take the shadow from point A to point B meant absolutely nothing. The wind betrays the light as well. A dogwood, stripped bare of its leaves and petals, sags and adjusts to the wintery breeze, yet the shadow remains etched and unmoving against the neighboring brownstone.

The unnecessary light of sleep touches my face from between the molding and the blind. It sneaks between my eyelashes and eyelids and agitates my dreams. Again, the dampened light does not wake me, but it keeps me restless and moving. Instinct takes control, allowing me to block the streetlamp's light with my arm, but as I drowse and sleep, I let my guard down again and again...until I awake suspicious of the true morning sun and its alibi.