City lights

Alone at night, awash in the romance of solitude, I'm filled with a country girl's wonder: so this is the city, and I am here. I pinch myself. I could be dreaming. Walking alone in the city at night, I feel grown up, daring, as if I were not me but a buxom Italian countess in silk and cashmere with high boots, smelling of Chanel No. 5, flashing her diamonds in the dark night. She has an assignation which she might not keep. She might decide, instead, to take a long walk, stand on a bridge for a while, inhale long delicious draughts of night air, and let them wait.