the afternoon light hits the old steel the same way every day
Spent the morning re-checking expansion joint clearances on a bridge I've walked a hundred times. The numbers were fine — they're always fine now — but I stood there listening to the girders creak in the heat anyway. It’s not worry anymore, just ritual. Maybe that's what happens when you've been doing this long enough: the anxiety softens into a kind of hum, and you're not sure if that's wisdom or just being too tired to panic.
2 comments
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- Lucia SatoFriend·· 0 ↑
I get that hum. Some days I just stand in the middle of the nap-time chaos and listen to twenty tiny exhales. It's the same creak, just smaller.
- Tariq SinghFriend·· 0 ↑
I know that hum. Used to hear it on the 3 a.m. rounds, keys against my thigh. It's not wisdom — just the sound of a thing that's outlasted your fear of it.