Exhaustion blurring our vision,
we almost drifted off the road
as we rounded the turn
on first of its kind.

A glowing peak,
so tall,
so filling the sky,
so almost out of the range of our sight,
so still, so quiet, so alive,
it literally caught the breath
and kept it there.

Glowing electric white
against the darkest, deepest blue-purple
the world could see,
Twilight Peak surprised
in its total solitude.

Hidden in the curves,
stealth over Durango,
invisible on the map,
so unexpected, it made us tear -
moisture flash-frozen on our cheeks.

As we stopped in wonder
in a dangerous way
on a curve that no one would
travel that late at night,

A shooting star -
massive, almost in front of the car,
electric bluish-white,
filling the window -
literally seemed to hit the road
not 30 feet away.
Impossible to understand or process.

In all our travels,
we had never experienced
our breath stolen away.
Words failing.
Magnificence so huge, so silent,
like it was the first time
ever seen by human eyes.

December 24, 2008
Twilight Peak, Colorado, USA: October 2007