"A Bunch of Burned-Out Bulbs"

 

As the five-fifteen train leaves the downtown station, the passengers tip their heads back against the seats and close their eyes--or most of them do, anyway; some of them allow their heads to sink to the side and let their gazes flatline out the window. Their books lie shut in their laps, or their newspapers folded; they hold their phones but are too tired now to use them.

The conductor shuts off the overhead lights so that the commuters can rest, and the car grows even dimmer.

"That First Taste"

A lighting fixture inside Tamale Hut Cafe

 

The story goes that Dom Perignon, great contributor to the art of winemaking, said to his fellow monks after first tasting champagne, "Come quickly: I am tasting the stars."

A story for the first taste of tequila: After a sip of the liquid he saw spilling from the heart of a tortured agave plant, a man said to his friends, "Guys, you know that 'lightning' thing we see in the sky when it rains? Dude, one day, people are going to harness power like that for use inside their homes, and it's going to be insane," upon which he passed out.

I can only imagine the strange lights and unexplained currents that accompanied that first taste of tequila.

"Lights"

 

God said, "Let there shine light in the vault of heaven, to give light on earth." And God made the stars and saw that they were good--for a little while, anyway. Before the fourth day's end, several of the stars burned out, just darkened in a fizzle, dissipating like what would come to be called smoke; and the almighty Lord swore, because the place had really been starting to come together, and already there were a bunch of things piling up that He still had to do, and He had spent so much time on this project--why couldn't things just fucking work like they were supposed to?

Later, days after He had assembled the heavenly host into being and given His breath to man, God said, "Let's tell that guy down there that the seventh day is for resting. There's this thing called 'housework' that's going to come about, and it'll be really interesting to see how he fits it all together."