We were sat on the roof. I looked at her- her eyes
glistening. I stared a while, trying to hold onto this memory. She gazed upwards,
as the vibrant colours danced in the palette of the ever changing sky; the marvel
of the summer sky- so able- to hold on to the fickle attention span of my jittery
lover. Not everybody knows how to admire the sky, to them it becomes a daily
phenomenon- she was special like that, to me, I would pride myself over the
fact that I understood her. I’d probably go to incredible lengths for her, but
that’s easier said than done. I write, so I express my thoughts through pen and
paper, and she? She’s a painter; her brush was her magic wand. Give her a paint
brush and something to work on and she could turn a dull stone into a gem worth
treasuring. My art didn’t seem to hold up next to hers, for you can only do so
much with words, but mine were all for her. I felt like the night sky; shrouded
in the dark but, my words were the stars that adorned me.
My mind tends to wander when I’m with her, usually fixated
on her, but in a world of my own- painting constellations. I fall back to that
roof- next to her- as I watch her still dazed watching an empty canvas being
painted from end to end in incoherent strokes- no colour seemed dull.
I call out her name, I say,
“Do you know why the sky looks like this?”
She smiles at me, she says, “I’d rather not go into the
science of it right now, I’m too busy admiring the sky.”
My back now placed against the warm tiled roof, my hands
arched behind my head- I lay there looking up towards the sky as I begin
mumbling.
There was once a time when the sky wasn’t as beautiful, when
the colours didn’t dance and intertwine. The sky would turn plain purple at
dusk and then dull orange at the hour of dusk. No one marveled at the sky back
then, no one cared to even look, the sky only served the purpose of telling
night apart from day.
Amber was the Nymph tasked with bringing the end to the day-
a spirited, small thing- she was different from her breed. More often than not
she’d be found amidst fields of flowers rather than playing in the forest with
the others. It’s said that the days lasted longer in summer because Amber would
get tardy in painting the sky – distracted by the beautiful summer blossom. But
she found no particular interest in her work, it was the same routine every
day, no change, no beauty. The sky wasn’t as captivating as the flowers beneath
her. On special days, when her anger got the best of her, the day would end in
a blazing red sky- the only time anybody really cared to look at the sky.
Amethyst, a rather secluded Nymph- often found amidst the
rest, but always lost in his own world. He loved the stars, but even with his colossal
wings, those unlike any other- he could never reach them, but that was all he
longed for. The nymphs of the forest would dance and sing amidst the trees all
night long- while amethyst would steal away to a secluded tree and watch the
stars simmering away until it was his time to paint the sky purple- to birth a
new day. On winters, the spirited nymphs would shy away early- I suppose they didn’t
like the cold as much- that’s when Amethyst would get some more time alone with
the constellations he longed for. He let everybody sleep in a little longer on
these harsh wintry days.
One night as he sat on his tree, away from the forest doused
in the merry making of his community- his gaze fixed onto Amber sat across him
on the other branch- looking below at night blooming water lilies as the moon
glistened on the steady water. Neither of them were there to strike a
conversation, they just wanted to admire the beauty of nature- one so ignored
by the rest of them. He looked onto her now, glowing in a bright beige colour. He
hadn’t noticed her before, even though they were both artists of the same
canvas, despite that- their strokes never collided, they never had the chance
to- it was decreed by the laws of nature as such- so they dare not tread on
forbidden territory.
You can place the barrier of time on the palette of the sky,
hoping that the colours won’t mix into a mesh of unintelligible colours- but
the world doesn’t lack bold artists willing to remove that barrier and tread on
roads untraveled.
Love is perhaps difficult, maybe not the easiest to come by
and certainly not the simplest to hold onto- but when you understand somebody,
truly understand the inner workings of the mind that they’ve locked away from
everybody else- perhaps naming it love becomes easier.
The two spirited sprites fluttered through the forest-
admiring the nature that they held so dear to each other- it was time for Amber
to paint the sky orange again, bringing an end to another day- only this time-
she took Amethyst by the hand and flew him across her sky, letting him work on
her canvas. The two danced across the summer sky- waltzing all across- painting
the sky with the incoherent strokes of their brushes.
He placed his hand on
her face and kissed her as the zoomed across the dusk sky- touching the clouds
in certain places and leaving the others in a dull blue. He suckled on her
trembling bosom as he carefully slid off his tunic. The sky was their canvas,
and they were bare artists- lovers set loose on an empty canvas- an expression
of their desire for each other. The sky lit up in vibrant colours for hours
that day as they made love on the clouds- the heavens taking on the colour of
the one that dominated, then shifting into its transitions. Amethyst kissed her
neck as she stroked her brush across the dull clouds and for the first time the
sky turned pink- the pink that brought out the love they bore for another. They
took each other by the hands and danced until the stars came out- and the sky
was still painted unlike ever seen before. The ether transitioned from the
burning red to amber flames and finally to a pink that dulled away into purple-
giving way to the night sky, bringing an end to the day.
Two artists as one created magic on the plain canvas splayed
out for them, making love through their colours on the celestial ether, leaving
a trail for humans to marvel at, and thus we began to gaze at the sky- one that
now served as an inspiration that touched the hearts of many rather than just
serving as a teller of time. Each kiss, each soft touch- another joint stroke
on their canvas no longer dull.
I sat straight now, the stars were out; they twinkled unceasingly,
leaving a trail to latch onto in the night sky.
I looked at the amber soul sitting next to me, her gaze now towards me- captivated
by the marvel of the sky yet oddly beguiled by my rather strange story, she
smiled at me admiring the words that I laid out for her.
