Yash Seyedbagheri – Illuminating Darkness – 5

 Illuminating Darkness
by Yash Seyedbagheri


“Myakka Palm” by Roger Leege

“Myakka Palm” by Roger Leege

Nick loves watching lights come on across the hills. Loves the notion of light, flickering, welcoming, concealing. It’s something inviting, offering no view of the worst sides of home. No view of dust, laundry, along with wives who metamorphose and tell you to grow up at fifty.

One evening, he turns on lights in their cabin. Surveys it from a distance.

Emptiness shines. No bookshelves, which he and Betty put up. They made love. Mocked their technological impairment. No TV. They used to watch Leave It To Beaver, dissect contrived plots. Talk about the beauty of respite.

Now she’s run into the world. And not even with another man. That would have been understandable, a point of logical action, however painful. And he’s expected to be logical? Grow up after teaching history? Coloring inside the lines and being obsequious to pompous blowholes? The cabin is the one thing truly his own in the world. A reflection of choice, a middle finger to authority.

He looks at the cabin from other angles. Light radiates, illuminates, taunts. Was Betty trying to strip their possessions of him, taking everything? Why did she say she needed to reevaluate life, as if life were an examination?

Nick stops turning on lights. Stops watching the lights over the hills.

At least darkness conceals.

***

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His story, “Soon”, was nominated for a Pushcart.  Yash’s stories are forthcoming or have been published in Café Lit, Mad Swirl, 50 Word Stories, and Ariel Chart, among others.

About the art and artist:
Images and method: Florida is a constant botanical spectacle and feast for the photo-artist’s eye, in color and black and white. I work with material from all sources from fancy conservatories to roadside wildflowers, often in photomontage. The cover piece is one of a five part series about “green”, the color and all of its connotations.

With international online, print, and gallery credits from a long career as an artist, teacher, and curator, publisher, and promoter, Roger Leege lives and works in Venice, Florida.  In addition to his own practice, he gives back to the photo-art community as the publisher of Dek Unu Magazine. See more of his own work at www.rogerleege.net and contact him via email at rleege[at] gmail[dot]com.