The First Flash

The First Flash (Seeing the Lights of New York from the Bus Trip Home)


Lights rear up
like but so much better
than a dancing horse
or a carousel
or even the lights
of a Christmas tree

1 million Christmas trees
but the ecstasy
inheres in the moment:
You live in light
and all the lights
that crash up
floating above
what humans never
realized they were
releasing.

City makes music
of these lights,
which you can hear
if they let you breathe
after the first
flash glance
the first clash
of senses
with awe and
unbearable shine.

They grab you.
Then vanish.

Then...home.