I looked out my window and saw
that the world was filled with light
in a city of wooden houses built
on hills. Around the edges, water
rocked and glinted, and a cloud of energy
expanded and condensed, changing shape. 
I did not have the life I thought I wanted, but one
that surprised me every day, and it was
my life, crowded with words and sound, randomness
and emotion, everything a sign, a secret that
I could not understand, yet I knew
that beneath the blistered and peeling, shining
and faded surfaces, something I could not name
was binding us together despite our failures
and our imperfections; something to do with
longing, with desire, had set us spinning
and keeps us aloft, humming
in the darkness and the light.

Bio: Carolyn Miller