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Black, Blue, Green, & White

Across the ocean with a turtle in the night.

By Kaia Maeve TingleyPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Black, Blue, Green, & White
Photo by Erebus on Unsplash

The beach was cool, dark, and smelled of blue.

A brilliant moon shone in a blue-black sky. Brilliant white stars glittered across the expanse of heaven, with the Milky Way clearly visible to my naked eye.

The waves lapped calmly against the white sand, and the breeze kissed my cheek and swirled my long white cloak.

I saw a dark shape approaching in the waves offshore. A turtle! Larger than I had ever imagined one could be.

As he swam in on the swell, I could see the shimmer of his shell, green and glossy in the wet. He came ashore and calmly approached me as I stood on the border of wet and dry sands. The look in his eye wordlessly asked me to come with him.

After a pause to look again at the bright moon, I acquiesced and moved with him back to the water’s edge.

It was clear to me that the great turtle wanted me to climb onto his back and come with him into the water. Under normal circumstances — I might have felt trepidation at this idea, but in the dreamworld of the night blackened beach — it all made perfect sense.

The shell scales which glistened so wetly green in the white moonlight were made of malachite! I climbed onto the wet, warm turtle shell and he carefully re-entered the waves as I knelt upon his great back.

We found a great swell

Together we rode the wave across the boundless ocean, and felt the timeless pull of the moon.

I saw the ridge of our wave — felt the spinning hoop of the tide, and lost all sight of land — feeling as if the entire planet was merely a bead of water moving through space.

We felt the dance of the moon with the planet — the eternal spinning of partnership.

We felt ourselves orbiting around the sun.

We felt the warp and weft of the solar system, and how she herself spins, time without measure, around some great and mysterious center.

We felt the pull of the galactic center on our sun, and the layers of spins within spins. White within black, encompassing all colors as one.

I felt the starlight upon my face — suns of great size and red fire in their own rights — made gentle by time and distance. Then I looked down to see all the turtles — getting bigger and bigger as what they are carrying increased in size as well.

I felt the very galaxy moving through space.

Observing the dance of the circles and of the way the spinning coordinates smaller within greater, I came back into myself and felt the connection between me and my turtle.

I felt the stillness inside of myself amidst all the spinning.

I felt the red pulse of spirit fire hidden within me, beneath all the cool blue darkness.

I felt the light of the moon pulling at the lightness inside of me.

I felt the darkness of the ocean and the undulation of waves in the water.

I felt the dark, cool of the planet pulling at the darkness inside of me.

We danced to the music of the light and the dark in each cycle of my breath.

I marveled at the suspension of time in the space of the boundless ocean, and stood up upon the back of my turtle and reached for the moon.

I began to spin around and around, swirling my cloak upon the breeze that was blowing us forward. Fearless, and careless of gravity. I knew I could not fall.

I raised one hand to the shining white moon, the other reaching down for the dark water below.

I had the feeling that all that has ever existed in this whole wide universe was me, my turtle, and this wave — both still and moving so fast!

We were at peace in this limerance. Together and alone.

All circles come once again to their beginning

Although the feeling is one of great stillness, suddenly I see a light ahead of me in the ocean. Land? Lit by the sun? Perhaps another beach?

Is it the one we have left behind? Or is it a new place altogether?

I cannot tell.

We approach the shore at an ever-greater speed.

The ocean lightens to blue, and then to teal, and then to white frothy foam as the seafloor rushes up to meet us at the edge of this new place. The swell begins to break.

As I stand upon his great back, the turtle catches the top ridge of the swell, then with his feet — pushes us forward dropping onto the opening face of the breaking wave.

We surf together — feeling the amazing power of the water beneath us — riding the great swell that has brought us across time and space, across the boundless ocean to a new land.

The beach approaches and the wave curl disperses. We come upon the sand gently, and the great turtle takes me up onto the beach.

A pause, briefly, then step down from the turtle’s back and turn back to look at him.

With a timeless knowing and great intelligence in his eye, he looks back at me as if to say, welcome home human.

I bow with reverence — thanking him for the journey he has carried me on.

My heart is full, as he inclines his head in return and I know he has followed whatever purpose he follows by bringing me here to this new place.

I feel thanks, and release of all the places I have left behind me on my old shore.

The moon still shines overhead but is now closer to the horizon of the new land. The stars sparkle down on me — newly close friends of mine, their light clean and silver and bright. The breeze still blows but is turning and bringing to my nose the scents of this new place — wherever it may be.

I feel time open.

I have crossed over.

The dark of night turns pale with a hint of the rising sun.

I begin again.

(c) Kaia Tingley

2021

surreal poetry
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About the Creator

Kaia Maeve Tingley

Kaia Tingley is a writer, artist, podcaster, digital strategy nerd, and sometimes hot-tempered supernova with a wild, free soul.

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