Through the Night - Christine Conkey

We are in the car driving towards my

past to finish the story I left in a different

town. We are mix-tape creating songs

from our childhood, 90’s and everything

from the radio we can remember. We are

so full of song. This man I knew once as

such a small boy, the same look up stare

of blue, laughing dimple grin, he is my

return to the home of my childhood.

We are between two small middle of

nowhere towns, darkness consuming the

windows until I look out further than the

night. Pull over, I say, I want to see the stars

here. He stops and we step out of the car

standing in the middle of the highway

that no one else is driving down. The

universe swallows us. No longer on a

road stretching towards my past.

We are now floating through the milky-

way-lights of this moment. Each star a

future memory, a moment dangling in the

air waiting to be plucked like the sweetest

fruit that Eve sought. The galaxy opens

and we, made from its dust, belong as

much to the stars as now to each other.

We reach out holding onto this blooming

moment, ripe in my palm, soft in your

arms. We look through the dark we both

have known, up to the millions of

moments now possible.

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Christine Conkey has been a classroom teacher the past 12 years. This year she is spending her time writing, growing, and finding her voice. She lives in Colorado enjoying the beauty of the mountains and fresh air with her three children.