A Journey to
the
"Ageless Autumn of the Sea"
A dolphin story of love... for those who have reached
the magical age of forty or over.
"A sea change…
into something rich and strange".
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She
stood naked in the moonlight. Her body
wasn't what it used
to be… but it named something that
was. She was ankle deep in
Dead Man's Bay, gazing out at a prairie of moonlight....
that glazed
the still water.
It was
two in the morning, on Tuesday, the sky was
densely salted
with stars, there was no breeze. She
might have been melting into
a sea... of warm blood, dissolving into the
water... as she went deeper.
She lay back, as the warm waves floated her up to the moon, an
offering… this
woman who had seen enough of this world…what it
had become… it's garish pleasures, it's
quick and easy gratification…
it's
incessant pulsing… like fevered blood.
She knew the currents,
the small silent streams and eddies... that
snaked through the bay. She knew the cycling seasons of their
movements. She had been doing it for years…
One of the virtues
of age...
As she glided back to
shore... she was joined, as she so
often
was, by Charlie… Charlie
was a dolphin.
Tonight
Charlie pressed close to her…they glided
together,
soundless... and the fleshy dolphin
continued to bump her, with
something
like impatience. She did not resist.
Now her most
reliable pleasures came
from these nightly rides, from giving
herself over to the natural world…
So, she let Charlie speed her along to the shallows just off the
beach… it was there, she had made
a habit of grooming him,
clearing him of the flotsam and jetsam that he regularly snagged
in his journeys...
around Dead Man's bay.
Charlie
bobbed nearby…his skin silvered by the
moon. Tonight he
was even more a
mess than he usually was.
A fishing line was
wrapped around his
fins, twigs and little bits of
driftwood, trapped
in the line…he nudged
closer, his body slippery and
sleek…
murmuring in his ancient voice…
Autumn came to the sea with a fresh blaze of phosphorescence,
every wave crest was aflame…Here and
there, the whole surface
glowing with sheets of cold fire.
While below schools of fish pour
through the water like molten metal…
Charlie
was particularly fond of this time of
year. He would come
in close to
shore to feed on delicacies…and his
body leaping
above the water, with the
laughter of a child.... told me
how
happy he was to be here.
I splashed a few feet away from him, this flexible, old frame of
a body… that the sea made young again…and could feel my toes
touch upon a crab, scuttling across the sea floor.
I could see mysterious borderline forms floating on the sea at a
distance, not quite plants, not quite animals…the jellyfish were also
partaking of this autumn feast.
Charlie glided back to me, ready for our moonlight ride…I held
tightly to his dorsal fin, aligning my body with his, as he
swiftly
headed for deeper waters…
We were
part of the sea, the moonlight flowing
over our entwined
bodies, and the
surface of the water…tinged with blue astral
light.
There were secret pools of
dark, that moonlight didn't penetrate,
hollows beyond the reach of the stars…
We
dipped down under the surface to scan
the moonlit caverns,
that came alive with
florescent tropical fish, sting rays and
a
solitary eel. And just as
quickly, returned to the surface.
We
rode the sea for an hour or
so…and then turned back to
shore, towards
our favorite dock. Charlie's
exotic impulses would have
him dashing
from side to
side, and leaping in the air! The child in me,
let out a
laughter…
the kind that only comes from the
belly… wild and free and
spontaneous!
The fever of the full moon… the ancient mistress of time…
and under our skins we were laughing…
Charlie whisks me up
close to my little dock, where I have
stashed
a towel and gown, for my journey back home. I slide
off Charlie's sleek body in a carefree whirl, and disembark upon
the small wooden dock…
like so many nights before…
a little
saddened by our journey's end.
Charlie echoes his farewell, as my wrinkled hands grasp the
towel, and I shake off the salty
water, that has been my home
for a few hours….
And lifting the moonlit gown over my head, I sigh…knowing I
will see Charlie in a few days, to take up where we left off…
as luminous animals and psychic companions.
She sipped some wine from her flask, to warm her body.
A sensual breeze blew through her hair,
as she gathered
her
things. "These
would
be the times she remembered,
when life
gets bare". She smiled
a
"little girl smile",
and walked into
the night
alone…
and made her journey
home.
"I unlocked the door…
so
love could come in,
but love knocked at the window.
I unlocked the window…
but all I saw were stars."
"The body
only appears to be an enclosure…
It is actually a passageway--- like an entry to a cave or cathedral.
It is quite the opposite of the way we've been taught to perceive it".
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