Big Sur

How many stars do you see?

Do you know what it looks like to watch the headlights of a passing car hug the winding mountain roads in the dark of night?

I have seen the coming and the going of the sightseers.

The passing of the light bearers.

The quandry of the needy. Hoping for one quick glimpse of the vast and nameless.

Like children in a maze. Hunters to the kill. Predators on a slow, thought-out stalk of wonder and amazement.

I have felt the pull of beauty so strong the oceans fill brimful with jealousy. They wake their ancient shores. A relationship so beyond that we know no language with which to describe their want. How simple we must seem - with no back and forth regular enough to satisfy their mission.

I am a hungry fish.

A jealous lover.

A star crossed Romeo.

An ill-fated star.

A disaster.

A natural rock.

A tired and unamused player with little at stake in a game beyond my capacity.

A laughing monarch.

A child.

A born loser in the robe of the victor.

I too have felt the lonesome call of an ocean of want. To touch the land one more time and wish for more. To steep in her wake. Awake in her steady silence.

Envelop me - I am Earth.