Light Fables

I  Maria and I watched as they folded the bright wheel up and placed it on the back of a trailer. The wheel that, just two nights before, bumped our heads against the stars. So much dream packed and taken away. It dimmed our eyes. Moral: Dismantling a County Fair teaches youth the brevity of dream. 

II  At the end of a hallway in my Grandparents' house glowed a night-light Portrait of Christ. His blonde hair golden in the soft light adjacent to the bathroom, a guide or refuge to lost souls. Fear of the dark often drew me under its luminous gold. I'd lay looking up and slowly fall asleep dreaming Christ's face into rising and setting Suns. Moral: Glory goes to the light. 

III  Jalil bent double in the stairwell. A nightly observance he performed with the same fidelity as daily prayers. Air Raid sirens shrieked like Djinn over the city. The harmony of sirens and explosions made him rhythmically sway. The earth trembled as if it, too, was dancing. More and more he wished to see the devastation, but caution kept him. Then he thought of Khadijah, his love, and the dream of missiles trailing like tresses of her dark hair in the sky.        Moral: Love and terror mend in simile.