November Midnight fell upon the earth and with it came the artic breath of winter. Shadows of trees danced with ravaged motion below the dim, insignificant glow of the street lamps. A faint indistinguishable drizzle gently hissed as it fell upon the dry, cracked pavement. A passing car, obliterated by its own hazy beams, cut through the calm darkness and dissolved into the indefinite distance of the overcast city. The hypnotic movement of the lights flashed across the impenetrable screen of dismal rain as they searched the veiled skies. Blank faces of houses, unknown figures cradling desert hearts, faceless voices; a constant stream of vibrations, hollow echoes flowing through the darkness, spilling across the sombre streets, dissolving through imperceptible cracks and hollows, through drain covers into the murky depths. The city at night: heartless and drained of spirit, retreats into an uneasy drowsiness. A window, illuminated with candlelight, teased the night with private human behaviour and secret conversation. The candle, a dancing star in the cool, dark room, showered the walls with fireworks. Infinite shapes and shades flickered, swelled, diminished and exploded above their silent forms. The vague space of unpersonifying darkness hung effortlessly before his eyes. A pale phantom to haunt the inward eye. In an unperceivable moment through its planes rose her faint, shapeless form. Her soft flesh seemed to blossom, an array of skin flowers reflecting the essence of the room. She drifted in and out of focus, her eyes seemed to glow, attracting every shard of light. Deep into those brown orbs, far deeper through the impenetrable blackness, the centre of the eye. From her calm face flowed every thought and emotion, they vibrated through her flesh, ripples across the eyes’ surface. In violent flashes he remembered every moment that he had seen this face. He could hear the faint tapping of gentle rain and it washed through him. No matter how much he could convince himself that he was close to her, this night she was a stranger, distant and unknown. His eyes fell under the weight of her presence. Slowly she moved a reassuring hand to his clenched fist. He clenched his eyes tight, he tried desperately to withdraw. He wanted the candle to dissolve, to take him to the other side. He wanted to be out there in the rain and never look back. But how could he break free, shed an entire #life, burn every memory. The thought seemed so desirable, yet so painfully distant. Yet he had stood here before and every time returned, burned by the inconceivableness of his dream. It was beyond him, never to touch; a distant light. Her delicate touch, fingers through the darkness lifted him gently until brilliant light filled his face. Her devotion was over-powering. There was so much within her waiting for him, looking at him through her enchanted eyes. They both rose. They stood close. Hands and eyes talking, their mouths touched in the darkness. The candle died and the fading light shifted across their faces as they looked through the window under an unfamiliar sky. They didn’t see me. Had I seen them at all? There was only a suggestion, as if a dark space were being filled with something equally subdued. They didn’t see me standing in the street below. Lost in the grey drizzle; looking up at an empty window, dark with private human behaviour and secret conversation. While they slept through the falling night, I retreated into an uneasy drowsiness; where cars hissed by my drained spirit, where the dim insignificant glow of the street lamps guided my aching feet into the vast obscurity beyond the city.