Sunset at Lake Woodruff by Stephanie H.

I walk in the web of dusk, getting caught in the sticky auburn rays of the disappearing sun, in the gentle swoop of the blue herons and egrets and hawks across the pink tinged sky. My stretching shadow pulls me forward, guiding my feet forwards across the short grass getting its first hint of nighttime dew. It is then that the moment seems to expand outwards, growing and growing until time has lost its meaning and I am tucked into this soft bubble of time, experiencing the world in its raw, untouched form. I am a guest, an observer in this bubble. I look out at the rich expanse of land before me, the colors of the reeds and the glass topped water whispering their blue-greys and earthy greens and their swaying tales of movement into my ears. I tilt my head upwards, as if in a dream and watch as a white egret glides overhead, slicing the sunset with its soft feathers, slicing me open until I am falling towards the Earth, melting, dripping, soaking into soil, pushing my way upwards into the reeds, floating up into the dawn sky, flowing steadily towards the silent water that wanders through the green grass like a maze. For a moment, I relax into my parceled body, reveling in this grounded peacefulness. For this stretched moment, in this place of flight, this place where feathers and birdsong collide with reeds and water and sky, I am offered a taste of freedom. For this stretched moment, I become the fibers of the reeds, the light, sandy granules of the soil, the whispery wind of the sky, the flexible, rippling volume of water. For this stretched moment, I am everything and nothing.

As the moment tapers off and I come back to myself, my flesh pulling itself from the reeds, the soil, the air the water, becoming human once more, I look back up towards the sky, watching as the now reddish sun glints off the white feathers of the egret slowly disappearing from sight. From here, in this place of flight and freedom, the feathers of the bird become the canvas of the sun, the bird’s flesh soaking in the pink, red, and orange paint of the sunset.