File: Winter dusk from a park bench.png (3.55 MB, 1586x992)

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I went for a walk, figured today might be different. Dark came early, got out, warm breath on the air. Ended up at the park, sat down, didn’t do anything, just listened. Buttons had been pushed earlier the way they always get pushed, giving that was never free, a tab that always comes back, resetting every week back to nice back to talkative, reading rooms before you even knew that’s what you were doing. But then just birds mixing with traffic, faint voices somewhere not close enough to make out, just present, and everything loud inside went quiet. Friend showed up, just kept talking, in the zone, this and that, one thing into the next, and I just let them, you can’t match that energy, I wanted to feel the whole day the whole night all of it, outside but in, hold it somewhere, not talk over it. There was an ice skating rink, lit up, people moving in circles, their own little world that didn’t know about any of the rest of the day. Sat outside just watching people pass. Warmth. Families. Couples. All of it going by and I’m just there. Still.