online: 2 may 2011 modified: 30 april, 1, 2 may 2011 30 april 2011 late evening
at the 39 steps
...late evening... clear sky... pale blue above... becoming pale pink at the horizon... one or two small birds chirping in the dusk... cool wind from the north... a blackbird i met as i climbed up the bank is still hopping among the fallen ferns... and i see now that there are two blackbirds...
...i sit waiting for whatever will happen next...
...it's getting darker... many sounds from the nearby busy road and from occasional aircraft but none seem significant tonight (though i know that everything is... perhaps my mind is not free of worldly concerns)... i see the lights of a vehicle passing silently beyond undergrowth that hides the vehicle but allows its lights to shine through...
...waiting for the fading of daylight and the gradual disappearance of leaves, twigs, trunks and branches, undergrowth... direct evidence of planetary movement... i look upward and see faint blue sky with as yet no stars or planets... a noisy helicopter flies past at low altitude... and the 24 hour city-sound rumbles and vibrates in the distance... the self-illuminated touch screen is lighting my fingers as daylight fades and this faithful handheld and its operator tap out these unanticipated words...
...a jumbo jet with landing lights on and signal light flasing climbs over the city towards the north east.. while a strong gust of wind at ground level shakes the branches for a few moments...
...darkness is spreading as if it were a thing not an absence... and i feel it's getting too dark to walk back through the forest... and i envisage the interior of the bus that i frequently catch at this spot...
...now the tops of the trees silhouetted against sky are still visible but the vegetation below is becoming a single blackness and i feel my way down the 39 steps towards what we still call civilisation though it may be transforming itself into something other... some new compound perhaps of art and nature... yes, yes...
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