Unsunset

Tonight I saw the sun unset

as we took off west from Chicago,

changing it slowly from just a sliver

to about three-quarters, possibly more,

when we climbed to thirty-odd thousand feet.

The effect was human and temporary,

but the sun, all the same, was itself, aglow,

as striking as anything ever seen anywhere

naturally, an ember.

When we leveled off and it finally sank,

it lay a bright bar of fire before it,

not just a normal region of sunset,

but sky as red as the sun had been.

That persisted for some time.

My son is going to be treated for cancer.