Brilliance

 

WordCrafters Wednesday Prompt: BRILLIANCE

It can be the brilliance of light upon a tree in winter, or a brilliant mind, anyway or concept you can use the term is fair game.

My Response:

We put up the lights. Then we waited and put up some of the ornaments. I'm not sure why "brilliance" immediately evokes darkness, as if one is only sharp in contrast to its absence, but it feels as if this season has been muted, as if, like so many other aspects of the year, it's happening beside me but without me. The brilliance is there, but it's not passing through me.

It's the time of year to plug in the lights.

Wait until the sun sinks, I assume to stay awake

On the other side of the world, tired 

but wide-eyed.

It's the brightest time, the darkest.

Evening hums like a startled nest of photons,

vibrating through my lenses

merry and wild.

It's a blind bend in the darkness.

Time slaloming through chill space, past chunks

where they'll slice it to seconds

and finer.

It's the winter tide, Christmas time.

Here, there's the cold wash of night perforated

by the houses, the bushes, deer,

limned bright.

--  Chrissa