A Sublime Touch of Light

I once knew a man, he reminded me of the sea. 

Calm, like the soothing sound of the waves hitting the sand. 

Tranquil and reassuring, like the foamy surface, bubbling across the rocks and seeping into the cracks.

He propagated an aura of peacefulness and independence that I looked up to. And all you had to do was walk up to his shore. 

I remember sitting in the sinking yellow one day, watching the sunset. 

I remember looking out towards the contrasting blues: sky and sea. 

I remember sitting with him as he told me a story. A story of enraged spirits that continuously fought over nature’s most powerful gift. 

They called it the orb of life. 

Superficially, they fought for its power. But deep down they longed for its warmth, its touch. 

The two gods had fallen in love with the sun. 

But hate had been born out of love, so they clashed.

The universe erupted into chaos, and only the invincible remained alive. Space became an empty chasm of hate and turmoil. 

However, after millennia—each unable to defeat the other—they finally came to an agreement: they would share their most treasured desire. 

And out of that pact of peace, something new was born: equilibrium.

And out of equilibrium emerged life.

——

You walk towards the juxtaposition of land and sea, a battle of its own kind, and sit as you relish the relaxing sensation of crashing waves and crinkling sand.

You watch the sunset: a true love changing grasps. You follow the ball of life as it leaves the sky and hides into the dark waters of the sea.

Yet, as the world before you slowly gets consumed by darkness, a new source of light emerges.

You glance up and smile at the lonely orb that sits in the abyss of the night.

——

Jealously was not something she knew how to feel.

But she understood loneliness, and that was what filled her soul as she sat, alone.

She hadn’t always been alone. Once, a very long time ago, she had had a friend. 

She was a beautiful friend, one who shone brightly amongst the emptiness and warmed those around her. 

Her friend made her smile, made her glow, and she loved her dearly. 

However, she soon came to realize that she wasn’t the only one.

A war had begun because of her friend.

Now all they saw was her. All they looked at was her. All they stared at was her beautiful friend.

Her own glow remained, but no one was there to look at it, cherish it, love her.

Her heart began to ache as she looked down—down at a small world that sat close to her. 

She let her last light shine onto the small world. She was growing weak, and would soon disappear forever.

Suddenly she saw something—someone—looking back at her.

She saw two eyes of wonder as they stared, and joy rushed into her.

That someone smiled at her from down below, and the moon smiled back.

——

We were still sitting side by side on the shore when he said he was going to steal the sun. 

I knew he wore a mask, a mask in the shape of calm waves and harmonious rhythms. 

And I could see something was stirring, building itself up. 

A hidden jealousy was reaching the surface. It consumed him, blinded him. 

The sea was being surrounded by a storm, and his mask was slowly vanishing.

But I couldn’t let him do it.

Because I, too, loved what he loved.

——

You watch the orb you adore the most, as it watches you. 

It is dark and you hear the sea grow stronger. 

You feel an unusual anger brewing in the water but ignore it—you are transfixed by the white circle looking down on you.

Clouds begin to appear, but the light is too strong: it pierces through with brilliance and leaves you hypnotized in awe.

——

What was left was a monster. An uncontrollable thunder of ignorance and fear.

He lured others into his lair and infected them with his own suffering.

He grabbed those closest to him with a cold fist and dragged them to the depths. 

He couldn’t have the sun for himself, he didn’t truly love her.

Rage began to consume me, as it had already consumed him.

The time has come.

——

Something was not right. She could feel a trembling fury shake the world, an ancient madness hidden for too long.

A fury that would, once again, destroy everything.

She began to grow worried.

She tried to warn the someone looking at her. Clouds were beginning to emerge, trying to separate them, but she forced her last drops of strength to shine onto the world. 

Leave! 

But the someone only stared back. 

Please! It’s not safe!

GO!

They locked beams, the whites of your eyes and the white of the moon, a channel of true love and wonder, for the last time.

The moon began to cry as the only being in her life vanished behind the murky white.

——

You continue to stare as the moon slowly hides behind clouds.

The tide rises and starts to soak your feet with cold water full of anger.

The wind picks up, rustling the sand and blows violently through your hair.

Yet you remain seated, looking at where the moon had once been.

The water continues to rise past your toes and begins to flood your legs.

The clouds lower themselves with rage, touching the sea, and obscuring your vision.

You take a deep breath as the water reaches your chin and the clouds surround you.

——

It’s not easy to look straight into the light if you have always lived in darkness.

He had found love in the light. But with it came loss.

He shut everything behind him and walked ahead in anger and clouded blindness.

He couldn’t see his past. He couldn’t remember we had been born together, moulded by the same forces. 

Our destinies and desires forced us apart, but our origins remain the same. Together, forever.

But I couldn’t let him take what was mine.

One last time, brother. 

One last time, in the name of love.

——

Sky and sea erupted into battle, shadowing the world and killing everything in it.

She watched in horror as she sat in the lonely sky, unable to do anything, her glow weakening.

Opposites attract but refuse to face in the same direction.

She began to harness a strange sensation that grew stronger and stronger the more she watched the war. On the outside, her shine was diminishing, but inside an unknown power began to boil.

Once she had only known friendship, and out of it, she found loneliness.

Then she witnessed and felt true love. But, that love had been stolen from her, and out of that love, she began to create hate.

Hate started to consume her glow and fill her desires, darkening her senses, and turning her into something she was not.

It was already too late when she realized that she was becoming the one thing that had taken everything from her.

Then, ever so slowly, her glow began to abandon her, suppressing her feelings. She weakened into nothing, vanishing in the abyss of the night.

——

I once knew a man, he reminded me of myself.

He lived in a world where the sun shone best.

But did not rise once it had set.