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.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
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*
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*
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