Speaking of sunsets, <br />last night's was shocking. <br />I mean, sunsets aren't supposed to frighten you, are they? <br />Well, this one was terrifying. <br />People were screaming in the streets. <br />Sure, it was beautiful, but far too beautiful. <br />It wasn't natural. <br />One climax followed another and then another <br />until your knees went weak <br />and you couldn't breathe. <br />The colors were definitely not of this world, <br />peaches dripping opium, <br />pandemonium of tangerines, <br />inferno of irises, <br />Plutonian emeralds, <br />all swirling and churning, swabbing, <br />like it was playing with us, <br />like we were nothing, <br />as if our whole lives were a preparation for this, <br />this for which nothing could have prepared us <br />and for which we could not have been less prepared. <br />The mockery of it all stung us bitterly. <br />And when it was finally over <br />we whimpered and cried and howled. <br />And then the streetlights came on as always <br />and we looked into one another's eyes? <br />ancient caves with still pools <br />and those little transparent fish <br />who have never seen even one ray of light. <br />And the calm that returned to us <br />was not even our own.<br /><br />James Tate<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/never-again-the-same/
