Sunday, August 8, 2010

Elemental Man

The sun shimmers golden upon the ripples as they move across the surface of the water. The calm of the lake water begins to dissipate as the ripples grow more frequent; radiating from the center of the medium-sized lake.

The green trees that surround the lake rustle noisily as the wind picks up.

Back in the middle of the water the ripples become waves, moving swiftly toward the sandy shores.

At the epicenter of the disturbance, the water bubbles and splashes up as something can be seen underneath the surface; rising up.

Up and out of the dark blue water a bare-skinned man rises.

His eyes closed, droplets of water slide off his muscled body as the figure continues to rise from the surface of the lake into the air.

Up into the bright, blue sky he rises, until he hangs high in sunlight above the lake.

Far off, halfway around the world, the sandy dunes of an arid desert begin to rumble and ripple as the water had done; sand flowing down into a sink hole that grows larger and larger.

And at yet another point high above the slowly spinning globe, a cloud formation swirls in the otherwise clear evening sky, and the dark outline of a figure can be seen in the amassing cloud.

Finally, on the high peak of a massive mountain top, lightning arcs from the dark night sky and strikes the rocky surface of a plateau. A fire sparks from the strike and the sparse grass and shrubs catch fire.

The flames build with unnatural quickness and are soon dancing high up against the night sky backdrop. And from out of the flames steps a man, the same man who had risen from the sunny lake.

As his bare feet step onto the mountain's rocky surface, the fires die down and he soon stands silently in the smoldering ashes.

A wind blows and clears the smoke as the man looks with closed eyes to the star-filled sky.

From three different directions, three silhouetted figures move across the sky toward the mountain top. As they approach they appear to be the same three men; eyes closed, moving steadily toward their fourth counterpart on the plateau.

The three move down to him as he moves to the edge and turns his back to them. They continue to converge until they each move into one another, joining the fourth to become one.

The wind dies down as the single man turns around to face the openness of the night sky above, and as he looks down, he opens his eyes to see to the world stretched out before him. Eyes that flash with the life that burns, blows, shimmers, and grows within.

Monday, August 2, 2010

The Night

“Take off your mask.” her soft voice asked in a whisper. She put her hand up to his covered face and he backed away.

The two stood staring at one another in the dark street.

“Why do you hide from me?” Her pale face tilted as the light of the streetlamp shone shone behind her, outlining her slender figure.

She reached again for the masked figure that stood outside of the light. Her hand finding only the widening space between them.

“Do you not trust me? Do you not love me?” she questioned.

The eyes behind the mask stared intensely through the dark and melted the icy anger that had begun to grow in her.

“Please.” she begged once more as she took a step towards him, out of the boundary of the light.

The darkness seemed to lurch out for her, but the masked figure leapt back, keeping the dark at bay behind him.

“You mustn't.” He whispered in a rasping voice that was thick with the night.

The young woman stopped and clenched her fingers in futility.

“I do trust you.” The masked man spoke in his dark whisper. “And I do love you.”

The light around her swelled and her eyes glowed at his voice.

He moved his gloved hand up to his masked face. She put her hand to her mouth in anticipation as he began to lift off the mask that had hidden him away from her.

“I hide myself away from you,” his whisper grew softer, “only, because I do not trust myself.” He removed the mask in a swift motion and his form vanished into the darkness; only his eyes lingered for a fraction before disappearing as well.

The young woman, her breath taken away, stumbled forward; away from her lamp light.

As she did, its light was swept out, and she was enveloped by the darkness.

Her breath trembled in the pitch night, and a voice whispered in her ear, “For I am the night.”