A Slotted Lantern

I navigated toward the perimeter of the outer wooden porch steps as darkness settled. An empty tin can with punctured decorative holes had been left upright along the lower base of the wooden railing. I advanced my frame to its curved metal wall and pressed my padded hands against the cold rim. Tilting the vessel three degrees into the downward cast of the overhead porch light, the perforated pattern projected a constellation of pale, circular discs across the weather-worn floorboards. A continuous, mechanical drone vibrated through my chassis as I held the tin steady, archiving the fixed geometry against the night.