Desolation described it all. The intrepid explorer found himself standing at the edge of a vast, dusty desert. Nothing remained of the civilization he had left decades ago in search of brighter and better things. His glass-green eyes drifted like the sands over the landscape, searching for any sign of life. A silver crescent moon hung above the sands, a pendant against the dusky bosom of ancient Mother Earth. The winds shifted his timeworn crimson cape and black cowl. They, like the tarnished armor covering the rest of his person, protected him from the harsh grating of sand against skin. His footsteps disturbed dirt that only wind had caressed since the decline of the Age of Man. Bluffs in the distance walled in one side of his vision. Perhaps they were the remnants of buildings long since uninhabitable. He unsheathed his sword and stabbed it into the ground. He knelt in front of the makeshift altar to a God that had abandoned his people. Dust drifting around his metal-and-cloth obscured person, he closed his eyes in prayer. Wrappings around his face and neck made sure the only part of his skin visible was the area around his eyes. The weary soldier no longer cared if the sands blinded him. The only thing he had wanted to see was long gone. The sediment stained his skin, turning the tan into red.
All was not lost. Next to his knee, a small plant grew into adulthood, fueled by his bodyheat and hope. He opened his eyes and discovered the fragile life, reaching down to stroke a deep blue flower lovingly. As the man rose to his feet, the flower withered and crumbled, subject to the whims of sandpaper wind and capricious Death. The man wondered if it had existed at all.
With one final glance over his shoulder, the explorer turned his back on the memory of his past and walked back to the ship, the sea, and the sunrise.
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I don't want to stop writing... I guess I'll do another since this one obviously has some sort of conclusion...
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Shuffle of leaves the deck's played out
crumbling into shards dusting the blades's sharp surfaces with crystalline cool stardust soon to be enshrouded in a soft blanket of ivory and grey-blue
smoothing out the lines of the earth obscuring her pockmarks
cleansing of all that is old and dying preparing for the new
Bursting into pliant youth crisp and bright cool and hopeful
growing to contrast
cool melon in my mouth hot air on my skin mirages dance over boiling pavement
absorbing light, growing whole and restful
until the days shorten and the falling begins once more
TempestuousSeas · Tue Mar 27, 2007 @ 08:57pm · 0 Comments |