new moon in Libra

when the world ended 

on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, the sky turned orange in the San Francisco Bay Area, due to the suspension of smoke (from an unprecedented fire season) above a marine inversion.  

the sky turned orange 

and when I woke up I wanted to go back to bed, 

I climbed over to the window and stared out at a foggy, terracotta-toned world

like dusk, but more intentional, and at 8 am

the sky turned orange 

and as the morning dragged on, it got darker

I saw something fly past the window and I was horrified that anything could fly through that air 

everything didn’t drop 

deadweight falling to the ground 

when the sky turned orange

the sky turned orange 

and I broke in half trying to explain to my parents that yes, the sky was orange, but the marine inversion was normal and the color was actually kind of a good thing and the air quality was basically decent, and we’re both totally fine out here 

under the orange sky 

drinking mezcal and watching tv

the sky turned orange 

and I listened to music 

so loud that it filled my brain up with a 

a genre-less adventure through half-played songs and full-volumed choruses 

if it won’t make me cry or shake my ass then I don’t want it  

if it can do both I’ll play it, on repeat, forever 

what is forever now anyway?

the sky turned orange  

and began to smoke

so I put on an orange dress and got high too 

and danced 

and went to bed once it got too late to see what color the sky was

the sky turned orange 

we  posted  photos of the ominous sepia haze to the timeline 

we locked up the windows but not before sticking our heads out to see how bad it really was

we pretended the world wasn’t ending but made jokes about it, to let the fear out in spurts 

and then it turned black 

and the next morning it wasn’t blue 

but it was sky-colored 

and the air quality was much much worse 

when the world ended the sky turned orange

but it didn’t turn back the next morning

this was just the dress rehearsal.