Patches of blue peeked through the clouds
in mid-morning, disappeared, appeared again.
I watched the dance. As the hour neared
when the eclipse would be at its peak here,
a hundred miles east of the totality, the air,
moist and warm, grew still. Somewhere
across the valley, a dog gave a single bark.
No traffic passed on the road below. Birds
were silent. I watched as color evaporated
from everything around me, fading light
turning even the sky’s blue spaces gray.
The trees and I stood together watching,
feeling the immensity of it, feeling lucky
somehow to be observing such a thing.
Why, just look at the way the clouds magnify
the remaining visible light! Isn’t that a sight!