Thursday, June 21, 2012

Flute Music


In a forest deep I came upon an old man playing on his flute.

He nodded welcome as he blew his melody and I sat upon a well-worn stump across from where he sat atop his own.

Quietly, I sat back and watched him as his knobby fingers moved deftly over the delicately carved flute; intricate designs covered its wood surface and the tune that flowed out of its hand-bored holes had a mysterious air about it.

As I watched and listened, my thoughts wandered through the trees that stood around the opening where we sat. The leaves of the branches rustled with the soft breeze that blew through them.

In my mind’s eye the late afternoon sky became the dark blue of evening with the red glow of the setting sun illuminating it from below and the milky moon from above.

The simple notes of the old man’s song became full and sinuous as they wrapped around the trees to bring them in closer and closer, until the surrounded me an all sides.

I could feel them breathing together with each other, and I began to breathe with them; I felt I was a part of the forest and it apart of me.

I closed my eyes to listen to our breathing as the flute’s melody filled my senses.

The song began to die down from filling everything, to just its first simple notes and I opened my eyes to find I was sitting back in the clearing the woods, the bright sun still lighting the azure blue sky. Nothing had changed and no time had passed.

I looked to the old man and he had become a bear, sitting just as he had been, playing his flute delicately with his furring brown paws.

“Oh, you’re a bear.” I said.
“Yes.” he replied, “And you are too.”

And so I was.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Island

http://disasterpeace.com/track/compass
Lying on the soft grass beside a cool pond she awoke to the song of the cheerful birds flitting about in the tree overhead. Her eyes opened sleepily as a smile slid across her lips. The soft curls of her hair flowed out around her head where she rested it upon the cushioned moss.

Sitting up dreamily, she stretched out her arms and yawned with daintiness. The folds of her white dress covered her legs so only her bare feet peeked out from under the hem. She wiggled her toes as she stretched and then sat cross-legged while fluffing her already perfectly fluffed hair with her fingers.

A chipmunk scurried down the tree she sat beside and ran up to sit upon her knee. She smiled at the little creature brightly and reached down at the ground behind her back to bring out a bunch of nuts in her hand.

She held them out to the tiny chipmunk, which snatched them up greedily with its little claws, stuffing them into its cheeks.

Its furry paws and puffy cheeks made her giggle out loud and the chipmunk skittered off her lap and back up to its branch in the tree. With a playful sigh she brushed the crumbs from her hands and hopped up to her feet.

Today she was particularly happy, for today was a particularly special day; a day that she had been waiting upon for some time now.

Her mood put a bounce in her step as she skipped over to the little pond and knelt down beside the sparkling water to splash its freshness on her face, washing away the night’s slumber.

She patted her face lightly with her damp palms and then shook her head like the tiny birds taking their early morning baths.

Refreshed, she got up once again and skipped a few meters away from the pond, to the edge of the green grass. She stopped and put her hands up upon what seemed to be an unseen wall that she leaned on as her eyes scanned all about; her smile grew wider with every passing moment.

The light, which had not seemed so dim before, brightened on her face with a milky white quality to it, like moonlight rather than that of the warm yellow the run sun. The light flooded in all around her and her eyes found what they had been searching for.

From further out, the grass she stood upon, along with the small pond of water and thick-trunked tree, was only a small, lone island afloat in the vast sea of space.

A clear dome covered the tiny island, which she pushed against in order to get a better look at the scene that was coming into view.

The island clears the curvature of a gray moon it hovers above and gives way to the view of a deep blue sphere, suspended amongst the stars.

The sun’s light now reflects off of the plant and creates a gentle blue aura around its curves.

The girl, standing on her tiny island, is dwarfed by the scene as they move into the center of it. She steps back from the dome’s side as the light gets brighter and stares in silence at the planet’s beauty.

The domed island continues to move on its path and tracks to the right of the big blue orb, further away from its moon. She sits herself down on a grassy mound and continues to watch as she absently pulls out a paper-wrapped package from behind her back.

She tears away the paper wrapping to reveal a neatly made cucumber sandwich and begins to eat it, all the while never taking her wide eyes away from the scene before her.

As she chews politely her little island silently moves along its path and crosses over the scene on its own trajectory into the starry infinite.

Another sigh escapes her lips as she lets her hands drop gently into her lap, this time with a hint of loneliness in it. She moves on her way, sitting on her grassy island, travelling, as she ever has, though space; all on her own.

Perhaps the wait for the next passerby will not seem so long, she thinks as she looks from the shrinking blue planet to the distant stars, a tiny red dot shimmers among them.

Perhaps.