power cut

No light, no electricity, the bread half-baked, no computer, no radio, no television, darkness, flickering of the stove and grey moonlight through the windows, and silence as the brief candle goes out, then the hail storm, then silence again, silence and darkness, one's thoughts compose themselves in the unaccustomed leisure and absence of distraction, the circle of firelight in the surrounding darkness, the primal image, what is beyond is feared, what is caught in the light of the embers known, familiar, comfortable in the ancient sense making us strong, fortifying.