Kaldea

I awoke to a screaming wail outside this evening. Howling. I go outside. I see two young kits near the chicken coop, yapping and yipping at each other. Twoon (cat) and Kiku (pup) follow me out. The foxes spot us, and hop off towards the creek bed. Aside from a damp stillness in the air, and the occasional thump of an apple dropping to the ground, a new howling begins behind us at the front of the house.

I flick my flashlight and look upwards towards my balcony from my driveway. In silently swoops the most massive owl I've ever seen, just observing the three of us. Kiku hops up on her back legs trying to get a better look, but does not bark-- not wanting to scare away this guardian of the night, perched precisely where Kiku herself takes sentry-duty during the daylight. It watches us for minutes. We watch back. Twoon's tail is puffed, yet she meanders with confidence in accompaniment to me and Kiku, in the moonlit eyes of this bird of prey. It bids us goodnight and flies silently into the cosmos.

Every 30 seconds, in the clear, inky-black space behind him, a shooting star rips by. Lighting up the sky like fireworks. You can almost muster the sound it'd make in your mind-- without the vacuum and distance preventing it. A muttering monologue of the time before and to come. Satellites, all scuttling in the background-- rush hour in the cosmos. Frothy milky clusters of stars. Thick enough to be clouds heavy with the rain the dry night air's lungs call for. A condensed vapor of millions of stars, with a symposium of bright flash, fizzle, and pops-- a carbonated galaxy.

Crickets. Grain fields. Sweet grass. A calf being soothed by its herd on a hill in the distance. A low, humming glow of fireflies hidden, like gems in the thicket of growth surrounding. The smell of the harvest due any day. The beaded dew on flora-- libations to an army of lazy toads and slugs. Relaxed Tonbo and Hima inside, so undisturbed and at peace with their beds that they feel no need to sit up, let alone join us 3 outside in our investigations.

I've known no such place that feels so ethereal yet so warm. So timeless yet so alive. My home is a wrinkle in time. Unified peace lies within this fence line-- like a sacred seal, unbroken. There is magic here, under the moon's beams. She called me to this place, and I heeded. Why I have ended up here, I have yet to learn. Or maybe each moment like tonight is the answer. The Fates made my life's string take me to this place and it's been wrapped tightly around these walls, this land, this feeling. Tonight, the magician's sleeve exposed a tiny hint of a hidden card that is the magic here, and I noticed. I'm a part of a cosmic play, and the house lights have just dimmed.

I hope, Stranger, you can experience this place with me one day.

My familiars in question, Kiku and Twoonie.

And here are Tonbo and Hima, the sleepers.