Colour (August)

There is serene stillness, black silhouettes of hillside against night sky and first bird song. First green buds of plum blossom line a street to work. A refreshing red-lettered black-lettered screen these days is my weekly income. Under a grey August sky blue-yellow trains glide toward some distant eucalypt destinations. Buildings of trees are every green, some storeys high; they restore a reassuring sense of scale. In the evening there is the lamp, a cone of orange-white light, under which I read ancient texts about the end of the world, that once were terrifying but now console, all things considered.