Very strange, semi-biblical flash of dream at the end of sleep.
In the desert at night, walking alone, I came across a burning bush, its stubby trunk a core of fire, molten twigs snapping and bursting brilliantly into flame, sharp cracking sound, the sound of light. And all the leaves fell like stars, shooting down with faint seared firework traces of light in the darkness, burning for a second then fading away, leaving their ghosts in ashes behind them to sink to the ground slowly, lighter than air, and disappear. The heat haze shimmers and shifts in the sand, which appears to be moving as the shadows spread in waves across it. And if I stare at these shadows, and then into the heart of the fire, my eyes start to see something almost like a face, speaking, and the crackling and hissing of the flames are a message, which I could decipher if only I could make it out..
Wait. And watch. And listen.
And then dawn comes swiftly over the desert, the horizon all around me. The whole sky is on fire, and the light is blinding, and I fall down in the sand to hide my eyes, still desperately trying – to listen – and, when I look up again, the fire has gone out. Flakes of ash settle and disappear, all burnt up to nothing. The silence is as heavy as the weight of the sand in the desert, a silence in which no sound could possibly be imagined.
Woke up wondering if there was a message. But there was only tea, and toast.