Dark Walking

Sleep wouldn’t come, the clock hands seemed to shrug, so I decided to walk. It was dark, the kind of fall overcast that makes a low ceiling of the sky. Early mornings, on campus, are always solitary - students shun sunrise like vampires avoid the sun - so I got sole custody of the university. With no traffic, squirrels, birds or humans - predawn was nonchalant. The wind, busied itself, sweeping the leaves falling in twos and threes, first left then right and finally throwing them in the air like a carefree child. Frost on grass looked grey, then would suddenly become silverlit by the moon. If you measure time in steps, as seconds, and then miles become hours. Soon, dawn made night morning, dew became drops, and I searched for coffee.