[Photo essay] Haunted Windows

Last Thursday I went for a walk around town, camera in hand.

A solitary observer, physically present but not really there.

Some people were left working in their high castles,

but most rushed home with hidden faces,

scared of the air that would poison them.

A person or two may have gazed up in wonder, looking for the first star of the night.

Only to see crisscrossing wires that second as dreamcatchers.

As the sun disappeared a few people lingered,

on benches in parks,

or alone in the dark.

Their thoughts to themselves, so hidden and lonely,

looking more and more like

the statues around them.

Flickering lights

with no one to fix them.

The only faces now are plastic and lifeless,

ready to wake up and strike me

at a moment's notice.

It was the first day of spring,

but the wind carried with it

the spirit of Hallows Eve.

Soon I was left alone in the night,

my only companions shadows and silhouettes,

stuck haunting shop windows

and mirrors alike.

The lights of the night lit up the ghosts,

taunting and watching me

through the glass of their prisons.

The night belongs to sorrow, to quiet, to dust.

All we can do is trust that tomorrow's sun

will free us from our prisons.