Totality

In a total solar eclipse, the sky will darken
as if it were dawn or dusk as the moon

passes between the Sun and the Earth.
Ekleipsis: an abandonment, a failing, 

a forsaking, The moon's shadow obscures 
the face of the Sun, and birds and other animals 

grow quiet. The temperature drops and age-old 
fears arc overhead—a dragon is swallowing the light, 

so we bang on drums or shoot flaming arrows into 
its clouded eye. Herodotus wrote in the sixth 

century of Lydians and Medeans negotiating a peace 
treaty to end a six-year war. In the middle of a solar 

eclipse, imagine armies dropping their weapons, 
rendered speechless by this greater darkness.