Leave the Lights On // Idiotik Community Challenge #9

the kitchen light hums like it's praying for me while the fridge counts seconds in mechanical grief there’s a stack of unopened letters by the sink all demanding more faith than i can afford this week the news whispers softly from somewhere down the hall about markets and borders and sirens overseas but i’m just doing quiet arithmetic with my breath trying to make tomorrow add up to something i keep telling myself it’s only a phase of the storm but the sky outside my window looks heavier than before there’s a flicker in the streetlight across the road like it’s tired of pretending it’s still alright and the neighbors’ windows glow through the dark like small confessions burning in the night somewhere a train drags its sorrow through the rails like the whole world’s trying to leave town slow and i’m sitting here learning how to breathe again between the numbers that refuse to balance out so we leave the lights on like a prayer against the dark if the world goes quiet tonight at least they'll know where we are yeah, we leave the lights on like a signal through the fear if tomorrow loses us at least we burned bright here the sky sounds crowded with machines tonight drawing white scars through the dark and i wonder who’s awake on the other side counting their own quiet losses maybe every lonely room in every lonely town is glowing just the same way mine is now a million fragile signals in the dark saying we’re not gone yet i keep telling myself it’s only a phase of the storm but the sky outside my window looks heavier than before so we leave the lights on like a prayer against the dark if the world goes quiet tonight at least they'll know where we are yeah, we leave the lights on like a signal through the fear if tomorrow loses us at least we burned bright here