It is summer, and I am a child.
Swim trunks cling damply to me, sending droplets of water scurrying down my legs onto the floor.
The sharp tang of the room's
metal floor and walls is in the
air, so strong I can nearly taste it.
Sand grinds beneath my bare feet into the steel, causing
soft whispers to fly around the room.
The roof is
wooden, and its scent drifts down into the still dry
heat.
Sometimes a telescope, others a machine gun,
the cylinder rests on squeaking hinges and points outside,
showing sand baking in the calm, constant sunlight
between
the ocean and the asphalt.
waiting.
-o-
It's most definitely a long night. Times, places, lovers, friends -- it
all blends together when I sit back and let it, peering at the past like a
film folded upon itself, shot slightly out of focus. Nights like this, it's
too easy to let the heart lead me off of the map, down increasingly obscure
backroads until I'm all alone, staring at myriad stars that gently chide me
for ever forgetting about things like eternity.
"Er....ground control to Major Tom...what the hell are you on about?"
"I dunno..." I screamed over the pulsing din. "Nothing, I guess."
It seems I'll never quite comprehend the strange gravitic effect it has on
me. It beckons and flatters at the same time, promising release into endless
realms of dream. It promises to forgive me for everything I never did.
"...get 'em next time, Tiger...".
Yeah.
Next time.
Of course, it will never be as good as those endless summer days. The
redolence of crushed acorns, the enfolding hiss of wind through the leaves,
the frighteningly hypnotic chorus of cicadas, suddenly massive, telling me
just how small I really am. And of course the sun. The palest of yellows
fading into an amber that seemed to stretch on for days, spilling off of
everything, telling me that sometime (but not right now) it would be dark.
It seems to have all been replaced just now. Even as it stirs within me,
the throbbing bass reminds me that it could easily outdistance the beating of my
fleshy heart. The bright flash of light fractures every moment into glittering shards flying faster than I can follow. Vague threads of distilled
(synthetic?) emotion lead me on. Thrilled to the core, I dive in headlong
until everything's finally quiet again.
I wake up and realize that somehow I've found my way to work. I stare out
the window as car after car streams by, sealed in the haze of a sunny day.
Trees sway behind the cheery facades of local businesses. "You're welcome."
I say, remembering what those words really mean.