in a midnight place: december

Part 1 in the final chapter of my book: "An owl on the moon..."

     Lily ice, frigid and biting, blankets the walk, the brush, each slope and slant.  The sky is a dark ocean reflected, in this season of the good tide.

     The fragrant scent of crushed pine fills the air.  Colored fire dashes and dances among the branches; a flame stirring life in fading embers:

 

Red the fire, hot the breath;

blue the flame, cool the death;

yellow embers, glowing, screaming;

green the life, the ocean teeming.

 

     I inhale the iced air as Daniel Wirth enters the frosted door.  Behind him enters a cold, quiet family of three; a family all too familiar.

     “I found them wandering down the road.  They said they were headed north,” Daniel says.

     “We are heading up to be with our family for the holy day.  Quite a storm set in.  Is this common?” the father states while holding their blanketed infant.

     “Sir, you will find everything to be common here.  Anything out of the ordinary is driven away.”  I step on my words and turn.

     He steps forward to stillness, placing his child in the arms of his wife.  “Cynics think themselves honest when all along they’re merely blind. They tend to miss the quiet, sacred beauty of this fragile world,” he says.

     I speak.  “Sometimes beauty is a most frightening thing, even for the blind. In my heart I had seen a rose beginning to bud, but the last petal has now fallen.  The one I came to cherish now lies silent.” With these words my breath nearly ceases.

     He leans closer and speaks with a fragrance of peace.  “Son, we must learn to walk through, not on the earth.  Just to be alive is of enormous significance. And what you do with the brief life given to you is entirely your decision.” He pauses for a moment. “Now, may we have a room of rest for tonight?”

     I turn and address the father.  “You may certainly stay with us tonight.  But know this, you cannot understand my shame or my loss.

 

Can you taste the salt of my sea;

the brine of a thousand, thousand tears?

Or see the haunted crest of the waves,

that wash up a million horrored fears?”

 

     In my silence, he speaks.

     “Do you possibly think that you or I exist isolated from one other?  No, for we are ever linked together by our very nature.  Why do you weep at a sad story or laugh when someone jokes or smiles?  It is because we are intrinsically connected.  The air I breathe is ours. Those who inflict pain or try to divide us into classes or groups are the least human of all.  We have come from One, and we are intended to be one, and in death we see the total equality; the mighty sepulcher and the unmarked grave both contain barren bones.

 

One mother of all;

one frail human race.

One voice calling all;

one mad, frantic pace.”

 

     “How can you speak of one humanity?” I ask.  “How can you deny my isolation?”

     The lady steps forward, and with music speaks.  “True, though a single drop of water will dissipate, the ocean is unrelenting.  Open your eyes for you are of the sea.”

     Her husband speaks again.  “It is to my shame if a child is murdered in the Bronx or if a man starves to death in Noyon.  We are intrinsically linked by our humanity to all that suffer, be they ever so small or seemingly insignificant.  When I see a child with no shoes standing in the cold, I am ashamed to shiver.

 

A body composed of infinite worth;

members entwined creating new birth.

If cancer infests their intimate frame,

the members arise rebuking this shame.

The Truth is a jewel embedded in stone.

Spend a lifetime in searching,

or make up your own.”

Author's Note

Part 1 in the final chapter of my book: "An owl on the moon..."

Reviews

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

A lot to contemplate here.
I really ,love this line

“True, though a single drop of water will dissipate, the ocean is unrelenting. Open your eyes for you are of the sea.”

[An owl on the moon]

Thank you so much my friend. I began this book's journey there in Tracy... suicidal and aching in isolation. That line rose as a hope that no one is truly alone. We just need to awaken.