Unclasped.

The sun disappeared unannounced; the world a drape of darkness. Trawlers out at sea crawled along the horizon; their small bobbing lights drew faint illuminated circles in the gloom, like small distant fireflies circumventing the night.

The cool of the night blew like the wind, slithering through my clothes and touching my self. The sea was a swirl of unrest, living almost incognito with a pacific self. Well almost.

Intermittent sprays of water it through up, were warm pointed needles pelting my face. Even after its rage subsided to rest as droplets on my skin, it lingered on. The sensation of being alive, the taste of salinity coalesced on my lips!

I sat there living and reliving those same moments arranged randomly by the divine croupier.

Then almost unexplainably I got up, brushed the grains of sand of my clothes and looked hard at the picture I had just disturbed. I walked along the sea, the softness of the sand and water at my feet. I, me, myself - a part of this living canvas that just stretched on forever, not particularly striking but so wonderfully crafted that no gaze however long and pointed, could make a mental inventory of all its wondrous elements.

I walked along the shore, no path to follow, no signpost to lead me astray and time was a handful of moments strung out like pearls.

I saw the crowd, the faces, the colors, and the laughter, a brushstroke with the rainbow as its palette. The crowd moved like an autumn leaf fluttering in a confused breeze, slow, drifting and hypnotic.

For an instant the imagery paused, unsure, and ponderous…only for a moment, a moment which seemed to last forever.

I had known her for a long time, flowing locks of hair framed her portrait of a face, a sun kissed smile on her lips, eyes that shone like crazy diamonds. She looked so happy, content and excited, those slow determined steps around the rejoicing fire. The wind in her hair, the music in her ears, and the song on her lips. The leaping flames of the fire, highlighted against the depths of her eyes.

She smiled and she laughed, her eyes twinkled, it was magical. Then suddenly, she blinked and the moment for me turned into a rabbit hole of darkness…she was gone and the glow of the candle was extinguished, leaving rancid wispy smoke.

I slipped through the dark wretchedness of the rabbit hole, empty, cold and anguished.

Maybe I was asleep and dreaming and have now awoken, maybe it is the puff of the magic dragon, maybe I am awake but in someone else’s dream…