We lost power around 1:36 AM.
I stared as my alarm clock flipped minutes
then blinked off.
My gaze drifted to the window, following a dim stream of moonlight
along the floor
over the desk
through the curtains
and out the window.
I got up out of bed
opened the curtains
and unlatched the window.
It was too cold
but I wanted it open.
I wanted to lay the wrong way on my bed
and watch out the window until I fell asleep
like I did when I was small
but old enough to wash myself
but not old enough to know not to get ***** in the first place
and I’d spend an entire summer's day imagining a world throughout the woods in my backyard
and when I’d come inside my mother would forget to tell me to take a shower
and I’d run up into bed as the street lights turned on
and I’d throw a thin sheet over my entire body
because it'd be too hot for anything else
and I could feel the sweat sticky-dry on the surface of my skin
and I could see the dirt beneath my bitten fingernails
and the window is open
and there is a breeze
and the raw scent of dirt and grass seeps into the fabric of my sheets
and I could feel that smug sense of getting away with something
that hurt no one and nothing.
The fish tank’s filter spurts on behind me.
1:38 AM.