nostalgic moon
i stopped, on the way back to southern minnesota, at the side of the road. i had been driving by the light of the full moon, tangling my way slowly along a gravel lane after visiting a close friend. to the north, lighting played in storm clouds, too distant to hear the thunder. all around me lay the flat horizon, the heavy but cool night air of august, and the chirping of thousands of crickets hiding in the corn.
it was a universal moment as i stepped out of the car to watch, to grab the night air. nostalgia tangled time and suddenly i was still in high school, standing in different shoes, but looking at the night with the same eyes.
there’s a feeling in that electric air that does not change. a feeling that will still be there when an eighty year old man happens to look back on a storm over a flat horizon and takes a moment to pause on a late summer night.