This Sky

Fence posts stand at attention as I walk by,
silently marking out the perimeter of lawns
containing slices of private routine for the families who live
in the little made-up houses, going about their lives
behind drapes yanked over windows.


Cars whiz by that, though they differ in color and shape,
all make the same noise as they pass along the black pavement
neatly squeezed between the busy sidewalk where people
hustle by, staring straight ahead, always such in a hurry to get
where they are going.

The bus pulls away from the curb, carrying off all the busy people.
It would have carried me away too, but my bags were heavy 
and the way was too long 
for me to make it on a Monday morning.

The grass beneath my feet now is course and dry,
a brownish green community clinging resolutely to the earth.
As weariness sinks into my bones and worry creases my brow
I tilt my head up and sigh, closing my eyes to blot out the bustle around me.


When I open them again I am almost stricken down
by the glorious vision rushing in through my pupils and etching itself onto my brain.
Above me the world opens up forever into a vast expanse of blue,
achingly beautiful, almost too much space and color for my mind to comprehend.

White, solid, ageless cloud formations tower overhead, slowly 
easing their way over the world as far as the eye can see.  
I stare wide-eyed up into the largest thing I have ever known,
wanting to absorb its magnificence into every part of my very being.

The all-engulfing dome of blue stretches on over the horizon
and I am amazed at this whole other world miles above my own:
a world both beautiful and ever-changing, content simply to exist.


My head spins as I look up, my body feeling smaller than the blades of grass underfoot.
I had been looking down so long, judging the cracks in the sidewalk to be so big,
that I had forgotten how huge and open the universe above my head could be.

The next bus pulls up to my stop and I let the crowd move me up into the aisle.
I choose a window seat and keep glancing up through the smudged glass.
If there is one thing I am sure of now, it is that I will never forget,
and never again  lose sight of, this sky.

Love, Despair, and Sea Dragons

There is a man here, in this jungle village by the sea.  I love him though I barely know him, but so does she.  I don't know her name, only that she has some kind of dangerous, wild aura about her that binds her to this place.  She wears a tribal short dress and a mask that covers her whole face, looking just like Princess Mononoke.  Some whisper that she is a witch.  Some say she has always lived in this place, as mysterious as the island and the sea that surrounds it.  

I confess my love to him one day and she hears of it.  Devastated, fury and anguish swirl around her, thickening the air on the beach as she stares at us through her mask.  She says nothing, but the atmosphere of the beach becomes dark and heavy.  The man goes over to her and lowers to his knees, bringing us both with him.  He has an arm around each of us, kneeling on either side of him.  He whispers into my ear.  I can feel his warm side against my back.  His steady heartbeat, more precious than my own, pounds rhythmically against me.  His breath is warm and ticklish against my neck and ear as he says: I love you more than any man has ever loved a woman.  Then he turns to her and whispers something comforting but also letting her know of his choice.  

We part ways as night falls and go back to our homes.  I look out my window and see her in a bow of abject despair on the beach.  She is kneeling down in the sand, her fists curled tight and her masked face pressed into the earth.  She hates me.  I can feel her hate and loss reaching out to me like a physical thing.  

The next morning I go out to the beach to meet the man who loves me.  My heart is light and full.  I have cast the unfortunate girl out of my mind.  I am smiling as I approach a group of people gathered at the sea's edge.  At first I don't notice their somber, grieving attitudes because I am too busy searching their faces for the one I want.  They turn to me, ages of hard sorrow etched into their faces.  When they turn I see his bloody, broken body laying face up on the beach, staring blankly at the gray, overcast sky.  He has a gaping hole in his side as if something had taken a bite out of him.  The water from the crashing waves swirl up and tease his hair.  They tell me the mighty sea dragon that inhabits the waters around the island carried him away and ate him in the night.  It is cold and windy on the beach today.  I feel her stare on the back of my head.  I turn to see her hateful masked face, silent and inexpressive, yet I can feel her smugness radiating towards me.  My heart turns to stone and I am consumed with thoughts of revenge.  I would go out on the sea and kill the dragon, or die trying.  

I go out in search for it using radar technology to see its huge bulk in the water.  I find it.  It is a long, imposing, red undulation of death on the map.  Then it grows small and disappears.  But it is too late.  I have seen where it went and know that if I am fast, I should be able to catch it despite its magical disguise.  I burst into the bamboo house where I last saw it disappear into.  There are two chunks of meat on the stove.  A husband and wife team that used to be the dragon.  Something in me feels their fearful, hating spirits staring at me in horror of finding them in their weakened state. I go and put them on the fire, cooking them thoroughly as they scream and cry out in death.  They hiss at me that if they should die, so should their daughter.  They tell me that she is in the house, just in the corner.  When the hunks of meat fall silent and I know they are finished, I walk over to a small piece of meat, pink and as of yet untouched by anyone.  I feel her innocence.  I decide that there has been enough death and leave her.


*kind of anticlimactic with the meat thing, but an interesting dream nonetheless*

What?

I came to a fork in the road.  Unsure of what to do, I picked up the fork and put it in my pocket. Who knows when you'll need a fork in your life?  I certainly could have used a good spoon half an hour ago, that was for sure. I supposed I'd just have to come up with a good story to tell Matt when he finally noticed that all his lemons were gone. 


Jason took the picture of Sharon early that morning.  She was wearing a green sun dress, brown hair drifting gently across her face from the wind's antics.  Alex, her fionce,  busted Jason's teeth in when he caught him running away with it.  He had photographed Sharon himself that warm summer day two years ago.  Too bad the photo has blood stains on it now.  Cest la vie.

July 8th Today I Learned

Bridal Gown Colors:
1. China and Many other Asian countries: red is a symbol of good luck (red with gold embroidery is common)
2. Southern China: A phoenix and a dragon are often embroidered on the dress to represent the balance of power in a marriage between husband and wife
3. Indonesia: the bride and groom wear complementary outfits and many golden accesories
4. Korea: traditional dresses are enormous and hard to move around in, making the brides maids more essential to the bride
5. Morocco: yellow gowns are thought to ward off evil. green is another popular color meant to symbolize new life
6. Japan: purple is thought to be the color of love, though brides wear many different colors
7. Ireland: brides traditionally wear blue. green is considered very unlucky

Try It!

Here are random artsy things I want to try before the year is up, even if they are crappy attempts!


1. Write and draw my own comic
2. Draw concept art for something I write
3. Create a photographic narrative for something I write
4. Make a hoop dancing video
5. Recreate a famous work of art and photograph it (can be silly or modern versions-pay attention to posture and lighting)
6. Write a flute song and record it
7. Make a stop-motion video
8. Start a Today I Learned column where I research anything I want and learn something new each day

Glimpses

Her face, beautiful and exotic, draws nearer to mine.  Her eyes are deep and dangerous.  Her luscious, full mouth twists up at one corner to form a sexy, sadistic smile.  She slowly parts my lips with hers and kisses me with the smooth confidence of one who is desired by all.  As she pulls away, her smoldering eyes hold my gaze, her expression saying I am a tasty morsel to be devoured.  I pretend I am unconcerned by the lethal poison burning my lips and the tip of my tongue, though we both know full well her kiss is used to kill.  But that is not her way with me.  We have been enemies for far too long and know each other too well for that.  She intends to kill me using her darlings.  With the grace of a deadly panther, she turns her back on me and moves toward the device.  I calmly wipe the poison away, careful not to swallow.  She places her hand on the console and keys the correct combination.  I walk over to stand beside her.  I can hear rabid snarling and snapping sounds getting closer.  The hell hounds are on their way to maul and rip and tear.  It's what they do best.  After all, she likes to keep them hungry.  We stand side by side and wait in silence.  They're almost here.


Sunlight streams down through the leaves like ribbons of gold.  Lush shrubbery grows amongst the trees around the grove, yielding fat, ripe berries.  Bright flowers rise up above the grass, filling the forest with a sweet smell.  Butterflies flit from flower to flower, alighting on vivid yellows, pinks and blues to drink their life sustaining nectar.  Shimmery, powdery wings dot the clearing in beautiful colored patterns, large and small.  The insects begin to gather together in small groups, bouncing up and down in the air with each beat of their delicate wings.  The patches of butterflies glide to the center of the clearing where the sunbeams are thickest and brightest.  They move together like leaves blown by the same wind, swirling peacefully around each other until they have formed a fantastical column of ever-changing color.  The column condenses and the figure of a pale woman robed in light, airy fabric straightens up and sweeps her gaze across the grove.  Her eyes settle on a human standing silently, breathlessly at the edge of the trees.  She smiles gently, mouths something, and bursts out in all directions in a mass of color and fluttering wings. 


Sandy bent over to get a better look at the large monarch butterfly.  It's wings slowly and elegantly folded and unfolded, showing off a dazzling stained glass pattern of orange, black, and white.  As she got closer, Sandy noticed what the monarch was standing on.  It had delicately attached itself to what was left of the rotting carcass of a squirrel, sharing the space gleefully with the flies that were attracted to the sharp stench of decay.  Sandy swatted at the insect, scaring it away from its perch.  "Nasty little bastards," she muttered, straightening up.  She looked back over her shoulder as she continued along the paved path winding around the lake.  The monarch had reattached itself to it's treasure, proudly reigning over the stinking, rotted remains. 

Dreaming: Exploring

I know I am in the Alaskan rain forest, though it looks more like a rain forest in the tropics.  I am sitting on a large boulder at the edge of a large pool.  A young male tiger lays on a rock next to and below mine.  I lean down to pet him, and although he is wild, I know he will not attack.  Beautiful, lush, greenery spreads out behind my perch for miles and miles.  The pool in front of me is crystal clear and light blue.  A cliff rises up from the pool to my left, it's top leaning out over the water with a tall natural column of rock jutting up from the pool to meet the cliff's top, making a gorgeous tunnel filled with water from the pool.  I am on the opposite bank of the pool than I was before, walking down a gentle, grass covered slope that leads out of the rain forest.  I step down onto a wide cobbled side street in a place that resembles an Italian town.  The stone under my feet is a light tan color and the buildings are mostly made of stone or bricks of varying shades of tan, light brown, and rusty browns.  The roofs are made of baked clay shingles.  I am a stranger in this land and I know no one, but I am not afraid.  I look forward to the adventure of exploring this place and living a whole new life.  I walk into a building and step down into a bustling mexican restaurant.  I pass by people who look hispanic and indian by turns.  Dark skin, dark hair.  A handsome young man smiles at me as I pass by.  I walk out into a narrow alleyway onto another cobbled street.  The sun has almost set, making the tan street glow with the sun's evening warmth.  I explore the town, walking past the people who live there and taking in the amazing architecture around me and reveling in the atmosphere of the place.  When night falls, I am still walking around outside on the lit streets.  I pass under a cobbled tunnel and notice I am being followed by a man.  I feel uneasy at first, and I stop and half-turn to reveal that I know he is there, to confront him.  Then I realize I know this person.  He falls into step with me and we begin talking.  The conversation flows easy and insignificant.  Suddenly the man turns to me, takes my chin in his hand, and kisses me firmly and quickly on the mouth.  He looks into my eyes with a slightly pained expression and says "So many words and nothing to say."  He lets his hand drop from my face and rushes off into the night.  I could follow him, but I have a boyfriend back where I am from.  I smile and continue walking along the festively lit streets, happy that it happened even if nothing would come of it.