In the fortuitous night, a ream of circles found its way into the Everglades of the Tangzhe River. It was the boundless beginnings of embryonic life transfused with the mechanism of distinct wonder. The search was clear, not for a new dad but one that was approaching him without an interrupted permission.
His eyes felt cloudy and his retina a bit darker than what it was used to. And while he lost the sight of the image that was there, he made up for with sound. So the dragonflies buzzed overhead and the light of yesterday shone with a force of the fan whizzing under the summer night. He hallucinated in the worries of a demolishing presence- gripping with unapologetic fangs and venom that seeped past the thickest gloves. He wasn’t protected in this. But somehow he knew his life wasn’t over. It was the start of him being told that it was alright.
“It’s alright. Let out your heart. The dark will pass and my light will appear. Be kind to yourself, my child. I love you”.
And so he did. For the next 6 months, he was the prodigy of the image of his father. Striking cords on a guitar and being unabashedly kind to the music gods for making him that much stronger in his craft, his soul would not corrupt. He praised his dad in the medium that knew them together the most. The rot was peeled away and the lingering sourness of an unripe lemon was now mixed with the sweetness of new possibilities. That dragonfly flew and the water receded into the drought of the summer heat.
He left his soaked shirt on the clothesline and came back into the house for one more goodbye until he would visit again next year.
“Bye dad. This night was for you.”
