The Sign-Off (Day 13: didn't write to prompt)

In a previous media world
before the existence of 
the 24-hour broadcast day,
television represented 
a stable world to me.

I thought 

everything in the world 

shut down 
when the stations 

signed off for the night.

I imagined the lonely
tape operators 
playing the 

canned messages telling everyone 
about the end of broadcast day

and imbued it with a gray 

duty-bound romance.

If I ever stayed up late
to see it,
it was oddly comforting 
to hear the sermonette 

or other words of wisdom,

 
and them the Star-Spangled Banner 
then came 
the unceremonious 

disorienting signal loss 

and the loss of connection 
to the rest of the world

and my world became unstable
again
until the 
next broadcast day.