A PLACE CALLED WATER

 A PLACE CALLED WATER

water’s ocean from below

pounding surf

sea spray carried by wind

turning sand and sun

in sweeping waves of punishment on body

taking in the last of fall

before the sheets of summer

before the final end of warmth

time of brisk sea and air

hot tea evenings

flowing together

to the never ending clock of tides

time to move on again

along the black ribbon

along the 9k rim at 130 kilometers

far north in the dome of a clear sky

in the twilight curtain before moonlight

there is the lightning

rhythm flashing reflections

glows of the echoes in a sky high canyon wall

lightning silently re-imagines my fleeting shadow

there is no north in view

now even the night hides

then an odd coincidence

the contrived measures of time

become binary

1010- on off, on, off

are subject to the flashing lightning

suddenly moving at 130 kilometers at 9k

stillness

for a blink

the strobe of insight

at 130 kpm, at 9k

nothing

total darkness

to total light

and they were the same

then there was a sudden dissatisfaction

as each instance open and closed

nothing seemed to have importance

total sight was total darkness

and the reality was in between

where is the sky?

The moon is nowhere to be seen

everything completely dominated by cloud cover

suddenly the ribbon becomes a slide

as the glimpses

left and right reveal the rising escarpment

of both sides

as the tunnel plunges downward

suddenly the walls drop away

the lighting’s ever widening view

becomes chaotic

and then there was the vast plain

spread open to the moon

an innocent beauty untouchable

finally, it rains

this is not water like the sea

no spray like foams carried on a breeze

not a water swelling from below

surf pounding the willing body

a water of sand, sea and surf

a water of a lighter texture

a whole different taste

driven by wind in a cold mountain night

standing in the frigid air becoming covered from above

swept by water onto face and limbs

water without the rhythm of the sea

a different type of relentlessness

bathing in magnificent thunder

coated by lightning

ice cold rain

water very unlike yesterdays rising waves

pulled by gravity and cast by wind

this water falls and is driven by storm

then it is time to move on again

not all who wander are lost

A.MENDOZA, 2016