- shades of blue -

once upon a time there was upon a man a great weight.

what this weight was, he did not know. he only felt it grow.

it grew so large, cast a shadow do deep and dark, all was dimmed by it.

the sun shone, but did not brighten him,

the air was sweet and clear, but did not delight him

the sky was so blue, you would wish to dive up into it,

to be lost forever within and have it full you to the brim with is sparkling
blue shades.

but the man, he knew nothing of this,

for the great weight that he carried crippled him to such things.

his view of the world was tarnished and confined.

he saw the gray streets slick with last nights rain and dirty rainbows made
from leaked oil.

he saw the crushed beer cans and cigarette butts littering the walkways.

he saw the homeless, the life and intelligence in their eyes.

he thought they looked at ease in their home, like they had always been
there and would continue to be there.

he wondered how they could bare it. letting go of everything.

having everything taken away.

perhaps, he thought, it would be nice. to have nothing.

the man shuddered, and walked the brisk walk to work.

a stranger in a crowd of strangers.

each morning this man went to work, each evening he went home,

each year he went on holiday, each Christmas he spent with his family.

he had a nice car. he wore nice suits. if he wanted something, he bought it.

though if he were honest with himself, and he very rarely was, he would say
that he didn't really want it.

he didn't know what he wanted.

he just wanted something that he could not find,

he was unaware that he was even looking.

so every day this man went to work, and the weight grew, and its shadow
grew.

this did not go unnoticed by the people he knew, and one by one they all
seemed to disappear.

the man felt alone. tired. even his family seemed like strangers.

he needed something, but no matter what he bought, it never satisfied.

one day he went to a high place.

from that place, he saw all the world laid out before him like an unfinished
pattern.

the sun shone warmly, the air was sweet, clear and laden with many scents,

the wind blew in cool airy gusts,

the sky was so blue, you would wish to dive up into it.

but this he did not see, for the weight was crushing him, darkness pulling
him down.

and so he fell. plummeted down, answering the earths call to claim him.

and as he fell a strange thing happened.

if someone had been watching, they would have seen a man falling,

a man with a darkness about him,

a heaviness around him that could not seen, only felt

and then... and then they separated.

the darkness dropped from the man, or did the man rise from the darkness?

the weight continued to fall, but the man, he flew.

he soared on wings touched gold by the sun,

he looked about him with keen new eyes, and he saw.

the world was not a perfect place, not always a happy place.

but, he thought, it was, could be, a beautiful, marvelous world.

a world of many colours, shades of light and darkness.

but, he thought, not for him.

the sun shone warmly, and it brighten him,

the air was sweet, clear and laden with many scents, and it delight him

and the wind blew in cool airy gusts, and he danced.

the sky was so blue, you would wish to dive up into it,

to be lost forever within and have it full you to the brim with is sparkling
blue shades.

-bittertwist

Last update: Thursday, February 08, 2001 21:01