The Parliament After Dark

At night the Supreme Soviet building performs statehood to an empty street: floodlit symmetry, the crest glowing, every window dark. A state that no other state recognizes keeps its parliament lit like any other, because the lighting is part of the argument.

I stood at the edge of the lamplight for a while, the only audience, and thought about how much of sovereignty is theater running regardless of attendance. Flags at night, anthems on radio, floodlights on facades: the state as a broadcast that never signs off.

A patrol car rolled past at walking pace, looked at me looking, and decided I was what I am, a tourist of institutions. Correct on all counts. I walked home past the lit windows of actual apartments, where the real sovereignty lives anyway.