The branches of the live oaks look like clouds, when they are backlit by the stars. The sensation is more like looking down into some dark liquid with points of light, with the clouds reflected in this vast sea. There’s more, much more, but the human need for light at night ruins any chance of seeing real night. 

When I first moved here to Hickory Head, the neighbors had a security light, but three or four years ago everyone moved out of the old house and the electricity was turned off. New neighbors moved in, friends of the family of the old neighbors, and eventually they got a security light, too. There for a while, it was dark again. 

Back when I lived on the other side of the state, I lived in a subdivision where everyone had security lights, before that I lived in an apartment in Tifton Georgia that was downtown. So this is the first place I’ve lived that had true darkness at night. 

Before I die, I want to go somewhere it’s totally dark at night, somewhere the stars reflect in still water, and imagine what it would be like, to have half the day bathed in true darkness.