Cypress Gate

by Douglas W. Milliken

She’s lighting the lanterns crossing the bridge. In the river chuckling with its stones below, long fish pass, silver and pink, without once acknowledging the woman with her smoking brand reaching again and again for the wicks. She’ll be old by the time the job’s done. But that’s many years from now.

Surrounding—in the woods, in the meadows—lights like fireflies dance singly in the dark. But there are no fireflies here. The echo of voices indistinct. A rustling nose-hunter beneath littered leaves. All the things that cannot be seen. She raises her flame to the next lamp in line, making safe this place for travelers in the night who by morning, sober, forget everything.

Douglas W. Milliken is a queer composer, artist, and writer based in the post-industrial riverscapes of Southern Maine. The author of several books—most recently the novel Enclosure Architect and the experimental family history Any Less You—he is also a founding member of the avant-garde chamber septet The Plaster Cramp. His honors include a Pushcart Prize and awards from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Glimmer Train, and RA & Pin Drop Studios, among others. www.douglaswmilliken.com.