I still think they appeared for us, especially

The quivering shafts of icy green

Snaking across the dark sky

Tinged with purples, whispered by blues

Everything fractured and re-arranged

It was dreamscape of flowing light

A performance of skyward dancers

 

Like breath

Fogging up a glass pane above

Shimmering in its exhalations

Not quite frost, not quite steam

A shiver of something else, maybe magic

The northern lights appeared

For me––

And the boy

 

We lay side-by-side on cold sand

Knees bent, forming a little mountain range

I was breathless and he was warm

The lights were beautiful

 

When he rose for a better view, down the beach

I followed

I remember his dark body against the shimmering green––

neck tipped back to drink in the night

A different kind of beautiful

He began speaking his awe, words pouring from him

Eddying with the swirls above

Everything was part of everything else

And I closed the gap between us, pulling myself into him

Wanting everything more

Everything alive

 

He held me steady there

But I think we both shook

How could we not?

Under those lights