Tears in the Blue Moon

The blue moon lights the empty state highway in western Oklahoma this Halloween night. I’m convinced a record number of skunks met their end tonight, perhaps drawn to further explore the well-lit prairie. With tears only occasionally overflowing my bottom eyelid’s holding capacity, I contemplate the tribulations of the year so far. There’s nothing easy about nights like this; I just left my daughter with her mom — something that you’d think I’d be more used to some 6 months into this. I’m headed to my apartment alone, wondering still how things got so off track. Needing a distraction for my weariness, I turn to Michael Barbaro’s podcast by the New York Times and learn about all the folks buying guns for the first time just in case things go poorly in next week’s election. Just a few minutes go by before the damn has broken. Tears stream. Headlights starburst as they blind and speed past. The moon’s light saves me more than once, showing me the felled trees here and there from the recent ice storm that still obstruct the lane.