MIDNIGHT AMERICA

This post is a continuation of the last post. 
I have been writing about the 1859 solar flare. It is sometimes known as the Carrington Event, after the astronomer who observed the sun flare.
Last post I shared the first two parts of the poem. Here are the next two. The first concerns those people in America [where the effects were experienced most acutely as it was night time]. The event took place on a Sunday and many people interpreted it from a religious perspective thinking it was the end of the world.
The second poem is more fanciful. I had read that the telegraph system was powered by the solar flare. Someone discovered that if the batteries were disconnected from the telegraphic equipment it would still work.
I wondered what if the Sun had wanted to speak to us and its words had been picked up by a telegraph operator and discarded.

3.

Cut to midnight America:

Drawn out of doors

to stare at the false dawn light sky,

to wait for a miracle,

unsure if they really wanted one,

then going back to bed

the morning is Monday.

Apart from the worried ones,

the ones that drank in the park until it didn't matter any more.

The ones who woke at first light baptised in dew.

4.

Beneath the power of the sun,

even the telegraph system went down

but there was this one operator,

having figured out the battery had to be disconnected,

that the solar storm would power the wire,

who listened to the letters chatter

as the key talked unaided.

He was a remorseful man and

the reproving words of love from the sun

amplified the burden he carried.

Halfway through the message he stopped writing,

tore the paper, put it in the waste bin.

No one ever knew.

I shall post the fifth part next time.
Here is more Arthur Lee and Love.

Until next time.