Tuí sounds the day's last sunset song and all is still.

It is that time when day and night exchange shifts - in such a gentle way- it’s not so much getting dark as my eyesight seems to fade.

This is the time of magic, the time of sleight of hand, blink of eye.

The sky is clear with dusk’s light, a parting gift left behind as the sun disappears around the bend. I walk the dirt driveway towards paddocks edged with lavender, lemon trees and flowering harakeke. A hole tears through above my head. The sky mends itself as quickly as it happened.. a glitch, a ripple in time? No no, none of this is sensible.. a fault in my vision? How odd.

Entering the yard and here is Ruru on the post in the lavender. Ruru has no noise. Flying over my head with such speed and silence, I don't decipher the dark shape as a creature of matter and earth, but instead, a blackhole’s antimatter - a streak of midnight, itself, showing up a little too early.

Ruru turns and meets my eye with a gazes. My soul leaves me, sucked into the tiny piece of midnight. For a breath, I am 21grams lighter and then returned. She flies off and takes the remaining light with her. Shadows meld into a soft blanket of darkness.

Night falls.