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| Evanescence |
Sometimes pictures reach out to you, grab hold, and don't let go. Evanescence, by Dieki Noordhoek is one of those pictures. After staring at it for two or three days I finally began to grasp the essence of what the picture was saying to me and began to write. First a poem, and then a short-short.
***
Wind-child
Standing lonely
Staring at the distant shore
Longs for freedom
Longs for beauty
Longs for what she had before
Wind-child
Lift your face up
Watch the clouds go sailing past
Weep for freedom
Weep for beauty
Weep for what can never last
Wind-child
In the darkness
Watch the rain fall at your feet
Dream of freedom
Dream of beauty
Dream of ending your defeat
Wind-child
Keep your promise
Keep your feet here on the ground
Remember freedom
Remember beauty
Remember all the things you’ve found
Wind-child
Storms pass over
Thickly comes the falling rain
Strive for freedom
Strive for beauty
Strive for what won’t be again.
Wind-child…
Freedom…
Beauty…
She is gone.
***
She stood alone in the ruins.
The wind blew stronger as the storm closed in. The dark clouds sped threateningly overhead but she was not afraid of them. Slowly she climbed the stair, holding her hands out to catch as much of the wind as possible. She lifted her face to the sky as the heavens opened and the rain began to fall.
The large drops fell harder, splashing on the stone around her, drenching her clothes and hair. She let the water run down her face and smiled, letting it run into her mouth. She laughed as the wind tugged at her wet clothes and turned with it, letting it catch her from all sides.
Inside she felt herself begin to let go of reality. Her soul began to tug away from her physical body. Her love of wind and rain became the physical; her sense of wet and cold became a mere spiritual knowledge. The lines between two worlds blurred and for a moment time seemed to stand still. Then the wind pulled her into itself.
She did not fight or struggle against it, letting herself slip away instinctively. She faded from one dimension into the other until she ran with the clouds in the sky, sharing in the wonder, reveling in the power, delighting in the elements around her as she twisted and twirled, one with the wind and rain… freed at last from her mortal form.
