"Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse?"
I needed to get out of the house.
Just needed some air.
Had to soak in what felt like the first burst of Fall seeping into the city. Woke up to an almost cracked lip, dried from the cool breeze blown into my room from the fan I had left on overnight. Air much cooler than when I had fallen asleep. Split lips usually don’t start until late October.
Headed down to the river. Very Bruce Springsteen. Didn’t go in, tho. Just walked alongside for a good while, taking in the sunset, walking east from my apartment, trailing along the twists and turns of the Charles. The only traffic on the road were the day’s last bikers, bladers, walkers, and strollers, getting in their last precious few minutes before the police would re-open the main road to cars once again.
Tried to take some stills, some free-frames, capturing the moment, all of that. Idly walking, idly snapping, wondering if any of them would come out at all. Not so important, I guess. More the act than the action, more the moment than the monument.
At some point, I noticed the shadows more pronounced the warmth suddenly cool. Realized I had been walking away from the sun for so long that it was barely a sliver on the horizon. I literally ran towards the sun, hoping to get one more glimpse. Running towards the western sky. Ahead, I could still see where shafts of orange-red light hit the trees along the riverbanks. Could still get one last shot in. Step after harried step, closing in on the fading star.
Lungs slightly burning, I reach a sliver of light just past where I started. Point my camera at the sky.
The batteries were dead. Isn’t that the way. Still got a few in, though. Some aren’t too shabby.
Maybe next time. Sunsets are funny things. Never around quite as long as you’d like them to be. A lot of things lately have been like that, I find.
Sometimes you can freeze it, though, just the way you like it. It’s ephemeral, but it’s there all the same, even if it’s just in the corner of your memory, or pixels on a screen.
