It was this very morning.

I was on the couch, minding my own business, at peace. It was this very morning, early. When something began happening at my apartment door. Not a knock, exactly. More of a humble jumble grumble. A bonking. A suspicious noise from the outside . I should have known better. I always forget the rule about the peephole at certain hours. Early morning and sunset are dangerous times in this apartment. That door is not just a door. It is some kind of optical instrument, some crude solar device built by accident. But there was the noise again. So I looked through the peephole! What happened next was not looking. It was not seeing. It was an event. The peephole filled with sunrise. The whole brutal star came roaring through that tiny lens like it had been waiting, for me to make this mistake. No warning. No mercy. Just a white hot magnifying glass of morning sun fired directly into my eye. And why the architect and the builders would line my apartment door up directly to the sunrise I don't know. I staggered back from the door nearly out of my body. For a second I thought I had discovered splendor. My nervous system lit up like a nightmare about a million times brighter than that. A brightmare. I nearly pissed my pants. It was that bright. And after the shock wore off, something lingered. Not pain exactly. More like mystery. Well I guess sometimes you are not checking the outside. Sometimes the outside checks you.☯︎