# Night in the City
Author: Paynalton
Canonical source:
Language: en
Original publication:
The night descends upon the big city, cars with lights on cruise through empty streets heading toward unknown destinations, a homeless person walks along the streets looking for a place to sleep and the clouds in the sky are painted in a faint carmine, dazzled by the artificial stars that form geometric constellations on the earth.
The wind doesn't blow, the stars hide among the darkness, intimidated by the beauty of the city.
Because it's at night when the beauty of the big city reaches its maximum splendor, when the houses are inhabited by families resting in peace, when the avenues are not congested, when between the streets solitude and silence are breathed.
At night there is always a place to go if you have enough money for it, if you don't have it then any place is just as good as the previous one.
During the day the sun shines for everyone, during the night the lights of public illumination don't distinguish between people and offer their light to whoever wishes to direct their steps beneath them.
Over there, at the corner, a traffic light retires to sleep, leaving only a blinking yellow light that reads: "Although the streets are empty, be careful".
Among the bushes of the sidewalk a young couple hides, engrossed in their infatuation and seeking a more private corner.
An ambulance turns on its siren and speeds off, disappearing among the streets illuminated by its blue and scarlet flashes, a group of workers, exhausted, leave the metro station that is about to close and board the bus, dozing while the vehicle moves silently through the darkness, carrying each of its exhausted passengers back home.
A taxi driver yawns, a woman in a miniskirt approaches a vehicle that has stopped in front of her, a pair of police officers sleep inside a patrol car, a dog wakes up and barks at a stranger who dares to advance in front of him, a woman wrapped in tears walks through the streets carrying a baby in her arms and a restaurant shines revealing empty tables and lonely people who only ask for a coffee, a den of sin keeps stacks of drunk teenagers...
I stop for a moment on the bridge before directing my steps toward the streets that will lead me home. I marvel at the peace, the beauty, the perfection that the capital acquires now that the sun no longer harasses its streets.
For a moment I wish the sun would never return, that those who now sleep dream forever, that the lights never go out, that this beauty be eternal and that I could stay here, petrified like a gargoyles that adorns the top of a wall, contemplating forever the beauty of this great city.
Image Property of: [Joaquin Rangel Quintero](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dsc02292.jpg)