**NOTE** I wrote this last night on a bus in the notepad section of my phone. The bus was driving me and the rest of the color guard from a competition, tired, and somewhat delusional. I just wanted you all to know that I'm aware of the technical facts, and this is simply how it appeared to me last night.
-------------------------------
I feel as though I've never seen the moon before.
There's a dome around us, around all of us, above the buildings and streetlights. It's thoroughly painted black, but the odd brightness of the black seems to indicate something behind it. Something bright and beautiful that we're not allowed to see.
We may be surrounded by glass, but I believe we're surrounded by paper. On a clear night, we'd be able to see small needle-holes allowing light to poke through, but as I pass through the city, the artificial light blinds the sky. All that's visible is a small, curved sliver of glowing white. Clouds pass over it like ashes. Something compels me to reach into the single tear and rip it across the dome, revealing more of the world we can't quite see well enough.
This is a fishbowl fashioned of black paper, even for those who think they've traveled beyond it into outer space. I wonder if the astronauts have wasted their time. Perhaps when we've reached that point beyond the stratosphere, the paper becomes a world of its own. A scary, amazing, illusional world. Paper has a funny way of doing that, like it does through pictures and books. The moon just becomes the moon, and the stars simply the stars.
Why is it that I feel so confined when I see the night sky? We have infinity in a black paper dome, but what if there's more to discover by expanding a sliver of a tear in the paper? There has to be something inside of it. The light is too beautiful.
Points:
Time spent:
IP address:
Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
Original Text:
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? This cannot be undone.
Mark this comment as a review? Points will be awarded to the poster.
Your comment was posted, but it wasn’t long enough to count as a review. Reviews need about four complete sentences (at least 250 characters). Try writing another review that explains your thoughts in more detail — the author will appreciate it, and you’ll earn points for it.
139,585 Literary Works • 672,611 Reviews
PS: Your profile picture is adorable.
Hello! I really enjoyed reading this. I know the italicized description was for context, but for me, it really set up the whole piece. I don't know exactly what it was, but something painted a vivid picture of this scene for me, and it completed the piece.
That's an interesting thought--the sky as paper. It's so vast that from the ground, it almost seems two-dimensional.
I am an avid astronomer, so I always find it interesting to hear others' perspectives on the night sky. I've experienced similar late-night delirium, and I agree, it does some weird things to your train of thought.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe your piece communicates something very similar to my feelings about space. The night sky can be happy and sad at the same time. I am fascinated by the concept of infinity, and looking up is like staring into an entirely different world of possibilities, but I agree that it can be confining. I've had the privilege of seeing the Milky Way from a truly dark sky, and when I look up and only see a few stars, it's devastating--just another reminder of our ties to the ground, and of how little we really know.
I don't really know what else to say. Your piece has everything. This was wonderful to read.
Thank you so much! I'm sorry it took me this long to read your response, but you're right about the way I feel about space--so vast it's confining.