In the Path of Totality   And even knowing what we know about the sun and the moon and their godlike choreography, and even knowing how to watch, and where, and when, and with our stories already half-written — how it will feel and what it will mean — still, when the light goes bronze and the shadows play tricks and a chill descends on us and suddenly it’s night, the sky turns inside out, leaving a hole as deep as the universe, a hole that swallows the sun and everything we know — yes, only then can we remember what we knew before knowing, before we thought we understood God’s clockwork and the miracles that might keep us alive, or not, how life is made of ecstasy and fear.                                                                     for Caty     © Michael Fleming Brattleboro, Vermont May 2024