When I was younger I used to lie alone under the sky at night, searching for faint sparkles of light in the distance. Perhaps a star, perhaps a flying machine... it's hard to tell with a city just off the horizon, tinting the night sky a deep purple. The faint evening din of bugs and beasts saturating my ears as the sun slips beneath the horizon as I scan in desperation for a glimmer of hope. Nothing since has been quite like those innocent days, full of wonder. Full of time to explore.

Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty
Sound of their breath fades with the light
I think about the loveless fascination
Under the Milky Way tonight

Of course, I don't have time for such things anymore once the sun goes down. Perhaps you do, with such a free spirit and few obligations have time for such carefree pursuits. Life moves to fast for the rest of us to pause and look up from the gutter we're living in. That's why you're special: you're looking up at the stars. I clock in at 8:00 AM and out at 5:00 PM if I'm lucky, 8:00 PM if I want to get anywhere. I'm moving up in the world but I haven't left the city in ages. I'm static. I go home and curl up in front of my television for mindless entertainment and have a date with my pillow afterward. Am I really missing anything? Or are you the one missing out?

Lower the curtain down on Memphis
Lower the curtain down all right
I got no time for private consultation
Under the Milky Way tonight

Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find

Of course, who am I kidding? It's hard to ignore the potential, the draw of those bright, flickering balls of fire which hang themselves on the world's ceiling. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to dance with you among those flames, drifting in vacuum, drifting in dreams. These thoughts come from stolen time. They live in the 25th hour of the 24 hour day. 96% of the time I'm content to live in my constructed world, but in those moments I long for something more.

And it's something quite peculiar
Something shimmering and white
Leads you here despite your destination
Under the Milky Way tonight

Sometimes it's enough to know I could still find you there if I wanted. I could watch my breath freeze on your skin in the moonlight and watch your eyes flicker as if lit by the stars. Perhaps some night you'll find me waiting for you under your midnight curtain, curled up on a bed of grass, gutter water thundering in my ears and my eyes searching for you.

Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find
Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find

Under the Milky way tonight..
Under the Milky Way tonight...

"Under the Milky Way" by The Church. Track 2 on Starfish. All cited copyrighted lyrics are in italics.