a cruel and elaborate hoax

the stars were out again tonight. for a little while at least. haze was rolling in from the east. the light from cape lookout, normally sharp, was a dullish yellow. a few middle-aged women were laughing and talking from a balcony behind me. i'd followed a fishing boat to the fence. could see the lights from the living room. five of them: four white and one red. the last two lazily appeared and disappeared. an explosion from the southeast caught my eye. it seemed like naval warfare. the kind of thing that's spectacular but not frightening when you can observe from a great distance. the lightning lit the sky every few seconds, keeping a much more erratic pace than the lighthouse. i think every time i looked away, a shooting star would flit past. two teenagers walked behind me once, heading home. soon after, a girl walked through the lamplight far to my left and down the stairs to the sand. i wanted to chase after her, ask her where she was going after midnight and alone. if you look up, you can see the milky way. a cloudy and faded scar across the sky. you can't see it in raleigh. eventually a plane inched past at a very high altitude. it was so tiny. the fishing boat, imperceptibly moving, turned to sail away. eventually only the two lazy white lights were left on the horizon.

i wish you were here.