Homo Sacer

The city lights received no power. The unaccustomed stars appeared, as though late for a casting call. The storm had blown through, and in its wake the severed power lines cackled in the saturated ground, or sent currents uselessly into puddles. An electric green light arced between the disconnected utility poles, fogging the vanishing point above the road leading into the city. Driving slow through the tree limbs, I occasionally had to stop the truck and drag debris to the roadside in order to continue home. It was not so much the silence that estranged me from my city, nor the lack of light, but the sound of conversation through the thick insect song and the red balls of cigarette embers glowing hot on the distant porches.