Pass Interference

Come on in and enjoy the beautiful weather, the gorgeous wind that blows through the night, entering the mind and bringing with it sweet smells.

On the wind I can smell a soft summer night, one that promises rain, a deep earthy smell, mixed with that near ozone smell of high voltage hiding in the sky.  I remember a similar night, walking along the street, hand in hand with someone special, laughing and splashing through the puddles.  Watching our clothes run slick against our bodies, tightening as we moved, spun, grasped one another, feeling the power of the rain, the lightning flashing above, hot sparks like our lips meeting.  The rain fell so thick it was like swimming, the emotions ran so deep I felt I could swim forever next to you, and let the world attempt to drown us, we would grasp the joy it afforded no matter the situation.

The smell has a sharp tint at night, one that brings out thoughts of fall.  I can feel the bite of the North Wind as it eases out of the sky after midnight, a promise of things to come.  I love the fall, so bright and bracing, yet I remember an argument.  One that flashed down like the wind on an October day, cutting into your flesh through the clothes, an argument that had no purpose, because like the fall, I was winding down, losing any warmth, finding only bitterness and bite, slashing about.  I was dying, falling down like the leaves, but with little promise of the regeneration of spring.  I was little more than wounded animal.  A rotten branch dying, ready to be cut from the trunk.

Yet I lived, without you, without the intensity of previous seasons.  I didn't die and learned of a new way to view the cycles, the promise of spring that must come after the desolation of winter.  Without you.