December 14 2009

Text By Meera Sethi

It can take years to remember their absence, the stars. Night time in the city shimmers so; bright orbs sparkle from high windows, streetlights send their reflected twinkles slantways across the glass panes of every car. When workers stay late in their towering offices, refusing to turn out their lights, it can seem as if they have replaced that old stellar glow with their own industrious baubles. But they're out, the urban stars. They've abandoned us. Some of us even forget, in time, that they ever existed.

So I'm thankful— I must be—that when we look through a camera lens at the urban leaves still left to us, we see that have, in fact, acquired their own diamond-and-gold backdrop. It's no substitute for the stars. But it is a reminder.