Penny Harter

The Marfa Lights, Marfa, Texas

We sit on the cold bench for hours, staring at
the darkening silhouette of the hill-line, the tower
with its flashing red warning light for planes, and
headlights snaking down the slope of the highway.

Others watchers are here—a family or two with
children and a dog, a lone hiker, all of us waiting
for the sun to set. Meanwhile, a large scorpion
appears from nowhere, a black shadow scuttling

along the seam where a low wall stands between
us and the fields that seem to go on forever. A few
children gather around it, keeping a safe distance
until they are called away.

Some say aliens are behind those flickering orbs
that fortunate folks have seen suddenly jet up
along the crest to shimmer and dance against
the night sky. People near us mistakenly point

to the distant headlights on the far hills, saying,
There they are! Look, right over there! They want
to believe. My eyes begin to blur from staring at
the horizon. Time to go home. No luck tonight.

We long to go beyond the world we know, want
to encounter mystery bare-handed and hope for
revelation. White light, the mystics promise
when we die. And then, what lies beyond.

O’Keeffe Museum

——

I virtually visited the Georgia O'Keefe Museum and was fascinated by the photo of the painting linked below. It immediately reminded me of visiting Marfa, Texas, last year, hoping to see the famous and mysterious Marfa Lights.

https://collections.okeeffemuseum.org/object/1057

https://www.visitmarfa.com/marfa-lights

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