Ann Thornfield-Long
Prearranged Departure
In Key West, I go to the pier where the cruise ships dock//and watch the holy sun go down. As it sizzles into the sea I think // I can do this at home. Doesn’t the sun set everywhere?
At home, I visit the cemetery at twilight // look both ways in case the train to heaven is coming // but it only moves to and fro in a flat world // not the round world of ships. I lift my hand, the sun shirres into clouds // I think of the wings over waters of Key West, Icarus and his exuberance.
Night and the stars erupt from indigo // two at a time, melting the icy heavens all the nouns reign on me // but it’s too dark to write them down and I am still chockfull of day // so I watch the fireflies who send me words in Morse Code: Dah-dah-dit. Dah-dah-dah, Dah-dit-dit.
In the late summer days //a hundred and sixty-odd years ago // when the sun threw her crown // against the atmosphere of earth and purpled flames // soared from pole to pole, turned wires to fire. // Moody Sol, singeing her name on a page of history // because she could.
In Portland and Boston, telegraph operators turned // off their batteries and fared just as well // with their signals galloping // dots and dashes like hooves sparking the air // spilling out their
smoking script // across the tables and onto the floor.
Signs and wonders, shock and awe. Never underestimate // the power of a woman who shines brightest // just before she leaves the room with everyone wanting just a few minutes more.
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Ann Thornfield-Long is a writer and poet living in East Tennessee. She has special interests in poetry that addresses coping with chronic health issues.
Author’s Backstory/Crafting Elements: When I visited Key West, I was charmed by the way everyone seemed to gravitate to the areas where you could see the sunset. Everyone was aware of what time the sun set. As the sun went down, I thought of the sun setting at home especially in a small cemetery where a new grave had recently been placed. I had recently lost a relative and three more would pass within the next few months.
About this time there was also a fifth in a series of solar flares (NOAA, May 24, 2025) that strongly affected earth. I thought about the beauty and solace of the Key West Sunsets and at the same time, the intensity and power of recent solar flares that slowed satellites and required astronauts aboard the International Space Station to take shelter comparing our star, The Sun, to a powerful woman who comforts while holding tremendous power.
-In the prose poem, the Morse Code spells out the letters G-O-D
-Shirres: a gathering of cloth in folds
Editor’s Comments/Image Credit: “The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking on 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were reported globally and caused sparking and even fires in telegraph stations. The geomagnetic storm was most likely the result of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun colliding with Earth’s magnetosphere.
The geomagnetic storm was associated with a very bright solar flare on 1 September 1859. It was observed and recorded independently by British astronomers Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson—the first records of a solar flare. A geomagnetic storm of this magnitude occurring today has the potential to cause widespread electrical disruptions and blackouts as well as damage to the electrical power grid and [to] satellites.” Wikipedia.
The image of a coronal mass ejection (courtesy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO). A 23-minute YouTube might be an interest to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWCp4iPkiqU