The air an echo of a night gone passed; it was heavy, saturated with moisture more like the sweat of the million people who toiled the day away. I began my walk my feet searching in the familiar dark a path eyes can’t see.
Selene peeked ‘tween the clouds, i knew then it was she that called me into the night. The familiar smell of the garden, a phantom of the mogra passed by as my fingers caressed the dusty bougainvilleas, quite as a whisper a bat flew in search of green mangoes.
A breeze from a far threw me back on the path, and i walked through the gates into the halo of halogen lamps, instinctively my feet took me to that familiar corner. The taste of nicotine as Selene smiles her enchanting smile intoxicates my mind sending me into nostalgia, a life half remembered.
On the bridge over inky black water i thought of the stars that dotted its porcelain surface; the glimmering lights of a city, the filth... the refuse, a lone soul hallowed by his cigarette smoke thinking of the days gone by, the women now shadows in light.
The road goes on into the dark, ghostly trees curl out of the swampy earth there hide spies of the night; a rustle, a wing, the creek of a branch, in the distance a howl. The salty smell of the mangroves, and then silence, pure silence of the night masks the sinister rumblings of a commercial city, and i walk.
The halogen lights blur the white stripes on the asphalt sway, tail-lights streak the streets with red and gold ribbons of light, a strong perfume wafts through the air, nymphs dance in the fog of cheap hashish. Black rimmed eyes fall upon me i walk along the memories of my past, i half remember them; they know not me.
I feel something soft and wet near my toes, its a pup, not more than seven or eight months, innocent and kind. I look into her eyes and i see her story, we were not too different one upon a time, but time changes all.
The night was born at the death of day and i walk its dark pilgrimage, a search for tomorrow, a dream over the horizon. It’s good to be home, it’s good to smell night’s breath and hear the sound of silence in the dark.
