Talking in the Dark

by PAUL JONES

Talking in the dark can be a way to begin falling in love or becoming friends again after a difficult day in summer when late light walks away, when the kitchen knives splayed on the table hold galaxies that remind us to be playful despite the sharp edges that the sun showed us. Paired in the dark, in passion, night knows us in ways we don't know ourselves. Something in us — coded into our cells? — goes back to the time of sleeping in caves when words were made to be believed, where the walls were painted for dreams, for magic, for hunts with spears, daggers, and hatchets. The people on the walls are working together. They have no anger. They have only hunger.

illustration by LYUDMILA TOMOVA