A Momentary Flame

Maybe I fell asleep gazing up at the stars. Although it certainly didn’t feel like a dream. Maybe I stared up at it for far too long and it decided to teach me a lesson.

I don’t know maybe it came to me… or maybe I went to it. However it ended up as; the darkness of the night coddled me. Cloaking me like a beautiful sequined robe. The sky surrounded me; circling me, cutting off my ability to see anything besides the stars and a slither of the moon.

It was funny how from far away, it seemed that the stars were sometimes the brightest of blues; but now that she was closer they seemed to take on a greenish hue that then turned gold as they came closer and more fully into focus. Little children made out of fire dashed around my head letting off a smokey red orange haze.

Falling down one by one, the star children left their formation and dropped down to my side. Bright yellow and orange and red fiery figures that looked like human beings, dancing in the darkness floated around my face and head.

Red separated from yellow and orange from yellow, the little fire began to squeal and organize their frenzy. The star people twirled like little ballerinas, giggling as they made me dizzy. Their laughter a strange sound that reminded me of distant thunder and ringing bells mixed into one sound.

Faster and faster they spun and skipped and jumped until the haze of the stars mixed in with the darkness of the night. The air grew thicker and darker.Thick smoke poured in from out of nowhere and there she was.

The clouds shifted around me, revealing one bright red eye staring back at me. There was a challenge hanging in the air, a question of curiosity. As if the sky itself were asking me; “Of what do you stare?”

“You must be human,” She whispered to me quietly instead. “I know because because somehow I’m human too.”

“I heard you call.” The hushed tone of a possibly shy woman rang out from beyond the dancing stars. I could feel the soft whisper of her breath brushing lightly against my cheek and lips., even though she was still a bit far away from me.

The horns of a bull peeked out from behind the dark mask of night.

“Are you human?” I whispered back to her, fascination taking over my awe.

If I wasn’t already intrigued, now I was excited. Whirlwinds of beautiful rose red swam around me as I admired that great bull- or the little that I could see of her anyway. Purple tinges of light speculated in the background- spying so it seemed to me, anyway.

I was in too much awe to respond, although a thought slid past me, a wonder of how I could be human- a doubt really- if this beautiful creature was human. My heart pound heavily in my chest as I watched her step forward from the clouds, her eye becoming smaller until it was the same size as mine. Although they kept the same fiery tint and the clouds still covered most of her body and face.

“Let me see you.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. All I knew was what I wanted and I said it.

Those red eyes seemed to bleed like a fresh cut wound. Red midst of light sprinkled off of her and flew around her in slow motion. Rage mixed with indignity mixed with a sort of shame made the darkness even darker.

“Before we go any further, let me forewarn you, I am no ordinary human. I’m one with no skin. I was born skinless to society, I was born naked in the sky and remain naked to society, even when I’m in a room full of people; I am naked and I like being such a way.”

There was poetry in her words that I immediately appreciated and wanted more of. There was a thought, quietly buzzing in the back of my head; she could get me lost.

I could tell that she liked to take poetic roads to the point of a truth. And her truth was feral, indeed. She both stepped out of the clouds and let it fall around her.

She wore the horns proudly, her face that of a bull and her body hidden in the cloak of stars that had first formed around me, but I could see that she was like a woman. A curvaceous, mountainous form. For a moment I thought I saw a dark brown skinned woman with beautiful silken hair. She had a gold nose ring and smokey eyes that made her eyes seem to glow neon.

Just for a moment, that perfect face was so clear I would remember it for months afterwards, but in the next moment it faded again into the darkness. In another moment she was all night sky, perfectly formed into a woman. And she stood still, simply allowing me to look at her. Until that moment; I had never admired real beauty. Pure beauty like this.

I could see into the darkness, the light of the stars reflecting on one another. It made a sort of translucent mirror in her robe. I saw myself then; a man with no skin.

In her mirror; I was pure darkness. A dark abyss. And I would have been frightened, but somehow I wasn’t.

Somehow; I’m still human.