April 3rd Sunday on 2nd Wednesday of May

Yes, this is late, sorry. Blame last month’s NaPoWriMo — or else maybe me, but here it is anyway. Tardy, but never forgotten. And first, of only three prompts this time out, “When I saw the sun disappear” (one suspects this may have been meant to do with April 8’s solar eclipse, but by now of course that was old news. Last month, remember?).

So anyway, for the Bloomington Writers Guild Third Sunday Write here goes:
WHEN I SAW THE SUN DISAPPEAR

When I saw the sun disappear,
WOW! I blinked several times first,
I mean this wasn’t like a few weeks before
when they had that eclipse — that was fun —
but this was more like the sun DISAPPEARED!
That was it, blotto, no sun at all, and of course no light
either when, instantly overloaded, the power
went out too.
So I checked all my pockets, instinct I guess
from back when we all carried matches, or lighters,
when everyone smoked. But those days were
long past (would we even have “days” now?).
So, nothing else to do, I turned as best I could figure
toward where I thought home was,
groped through the dark — crawled when going
got rough — but luckily found it (I fortunately hadn’t
had time to go far, when “it” happened),
felt up to the key lock, and opened the door.
More groping, then, fleetingly petting the cat
whose meows sounded puzzled too when she
slinked past me, and found a flashlight.
I checked batteries then, for extras when needed —
I imagined the stores would be sold out quickly —
and found and lit candles (these from a burner
on the gas stove — no matches, remember?).
Then thought, as I felt that brief moment of warmth,
that even my camp lantern would be no help
when the intense cold came.