1.

When the light strikes, it sparkles on the broken glass littering the tile floor. But somehow her clever toes sense the jagged hazard. Humming, she slides into a rhythm and dances around the sharp implements of my scattered rage.

2.

When the light strikes, hitting me, I jitterbug as electricity zings through my nervous system. I topple and lay with a downed tree. My arms and its branches intertwine in one last embrace before my tree-hugging days end. In stormy black and strobing emergency lights, my soul flies free. Down I look to contemplate the broken glass glittering on in the streetlights.

3.

When the light strikes, I squint. It’s shining through a crack illuminating a squalid room. My shame’s revealed in its cold fluorescent light. Empty bottles surround me and their glass eyes pierce me. In their reflections, scenes from last night replay.

4.

When the light strikes, it generates a thousand sparks. In a plume they rise, rocketing towards the stars, pushing a metal can through the stratosphere. Down below, a necklace of lights glows, marking the last city to spin away into eternal night. But I’m gone. My hand’s pressed to the glass feeling space’s chill.

1.

I have a new plan for the next time the light strikes. When its rays fall golden through the window she will be dead and gone. Laughing, I throw my head back and skip in glee. No glass shards this time. I shelter a match in my hands and touch it to a wick. Who knew a ball of grocery twine would serve such a nefarious purpose so well!

2.

Flying high I see when the light strikes its killing blow ending another blowhard. I’m floating into the sky, waving at astronauts moon-ward bound. But they look right through me as we rise through stormy skies together. Each of us is locked onto our separate trajectories, our separate woes.

3.

The light strikes a padlock. I shake the door. Let me out. Oh God, let me out! When the light strikes so does my heel, sending bottles rolling. How did I end up in here? Beyond the crack, sun shines in through a window onto an expanding puddle. Am I to drown in here all alone? Empty whiskey bottles attest to my sin.

4.

I thought I saw something just for a moment hovering over the earth. Maybe it was a cloud or a shadow thrown by one. For a moment, I swear I saw the guy who was struck by lightning the other night. Yeah, you remember him. They showed the coverage on channel 2 this morning. I see him flying when the light strikes just so.

---

I accidentally broke a glass the other night. In the dim light shining off its pieces, this post was born.