Summer Blaze

Defined prominently by the long months blurred into short sensitive tempered weeks. The queen of hours wasted lies in bed, sprawled lazily across the mattress. Body pressed down against the sheets, beads of sweat rolling down her neck and down her back. August spent largely in light silks with bare feet on lukewarm carpets. Her eyes settle on too much skin and bottomless wary eyes. Every night seems fused with daybreak. Nestled on the couch, with the fan swishing above her head, she stares at the wooden paddles rotating like mad because she has the time. The arms wave at her, making her dizzy. Lose strands of hair wave back and get caught on her eyelashes. Time keeps its distance and slips into a taunting grin. How clever, how will she ever secure a hold on time’s wrist from so far away? Let it go.

Crumbs on her pillow, dust in her eye, her heart in her throat. Morning’s luster stirred up picnics in her head, lounging below the roaming bees and twitching leaves. And at sundown, when the soft purple hues in the sky are touched by bright red, nobody understands her then. She looks up at the scarlet sky as clouds wrap around the sun like cryptic lovers. There’s nothing so dazzling, so right, so perfect. Summer gave her a night in the arcade, her eggshell limbs carried her to the prizes while strange faces bore into her pupils. And the brightly lit lightbulbs tirelessly blinked at her till farewell relieved the flickering winks.

Sans vibrant sun rays, night walks induced the greatest marvels. On one such starless walk, fireworks lit up the night sky with flashes of rich colors, all so bold and dazzling. In the forefront, a man played the violin with fervor and grace, his face glowing like diamond skin. The soft wind in her hair, whispered life secrets into her ear and for a brief, never-ending second all the things right in the universe caressed her cheek. Its touch seemed to brush beneath her skin, peeling back layers of fear, swarming past her interior to the bones of her face. Such heavy splendor. Eyes alight, her mind unraveling. She stared slack-jawed in silence and pushed back the thick veils of unconsciousness. Only then can reality tether her to the top of the earth and she willingly obliged.

Summer carried her home in purring vehicles, past the buzzing towns and flashing lights with no trail to trace. She wrecked the waves and loved sailors lost at sea. Be like water she thought. But she wandered too far from home drawn by wicked rugged faces with twinkles in their eyes and syrupy sweet voices. Sweet breath down her skin, they hovered close and murmured in her ear velvet-soft promises like shattering glass. Three years she drifted back home with a headache in her chest. Calmer hours of darkness she spent probing deeper into the tangled layers of her memory, reminiscing on love that dwindled prior to it’s shot at life. Now bound like an anchor chained to the bed of the ocean, ice crystals form in the creases of her eyes, and melt in the summer blaze, falling down weightless to the ground.
“Don’t let yourself be lost,” I tell her.