Balance

walking down my street last night.
i couldn't sleep and it was about 2AM. although i couldn't sleep, i was groggy and out of balance. i stumbled out of my pit and put on any clothes i tripped over on my way up. i grabbed my keys and i locked the door behind me.
at night everything is different. it's the same buildings and the same scenery, but isolated. life after the apocolypse. normally you can only be this alone inside your head or in a big field, but out here, at this time, is magnificent. the air is as crisp and as cold as a knife blade, and the air isn't as heavy with smoke and gas as it is in the day when big men with their big SUVs and big guns come parading round this circus tent.
all done up in their combat uniform - just in case we get attacked this very second - with their huge black guns full of tiny little portions of death. sharp shiny portions. but not here and not now. now i can walk down where i live and everything is still and everything is silent. all is at peace, for the first time in a long time.
i know that as soon as i wake up everything will be busy again. it's like life is sped up in the day - all rush rush rush - and so to compensate it has to slow right down at night. then the day can balance up. wouldn't it be strange if it was calm in the day time and calm at night - all equal. that kind of balance doesn't exist in modern days i suppose. only in the past, in books and stories.
as i turn the key back in the lock and walk upstairs i think about how calm it is outside.
and i still can't sleep.