Weather Melodrama
Heliocentric XI
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Almost like some old radio program announcer, the news anchor’s voice is authoritative, darkly dramatic: Was that new moon that was covered by clouds a couple weeks ago the last we’ll see of a clear sky?
It was heading on fifteen days straight of constant, totally sunless, overcast skies. The media was reporting that it was record-breaking for New York City. In the last week, every chance they had, they mentioned Seasonal Affective Disorder — some microphone wielding reporter out in some grey location, delighted in alluding to its acronym, suggesting the dread that could, maybe should, be spreading. Or some attempt at being lighthearted, with anecdotes about other cloudy cities; Buffalo, Seattle.
He clicks off the television. Enough of this forecast melodrama that these broadcasters relish so much whenever the weather suggests the real and threatening, often filicidal, nature of Mother Nature. The audience loves action on their screens; perhaps some superhero who will blow the gloomy clouds away.
Still warm and humid for October he decides to go up the stairs to the rooftop. Just as he exits the door, emerging from the shifting darkness, is the Man on the Moon, full, smiling as brightly as ever with that glow from more than ninety million miles away.
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© AleXander Hirka 2019. All Rights Reserved.
Heliocentric Redux 2019
Heliocentric. October 2018 writing project — one short sketch a day, under 250 words each, circling like a planet around The Sun.
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