Longest Day
It is the longest day of the year.
This day has always demanded something from me. It rips me out of sleep, early, too early. Just as the first light is breaking through the sky. Wake up, it shouts at me.
There is something to see here, it yells.
I’m sluggish, sticky. The hair on the back of my neck rubs against me, bothers me. I drink water, then coffee. I sit in the silence of morning, before the birds have begun their songs, before the cars have started their travel.