Sea

Branches with silver leaves

Swaying gently in the breeze
Behind it a blue morning sky, 
Announcing the day to come.
The smell of the sea stings a little, 
The sounds of waves crashing in the distance
Remind you of where you are.

And you hear something new,
A guitar, not far,
Voices singing with that morning dissonance,
Inviting heads to turn,
People to come out of tents,
Other morning voices to join.

For a moment,
Despite how
Tired,
Sunburned,
Mosquito-bitten,
Or dirty
You might feel,
It feels like you’ve found a patch of heaven on earth
In this moment everything is fine.
You start humming along to the song,
Slowly getting up from the place you slept,
And you feel like you’ve been here all your life.
You know these strangers by name,
Somehow in the night they became family,
Uncomplicated and open,
And you’re finally home.

 

the Sound of the Earth Flows

I wake up in a new place, I can feel it, the damp, soft earth under my feet as I get up. I’m probably in a field, I can feel an unobstructed cool wind in my back and ruffling my hair. I raise my head and enjoy the morning. It feels like morning. As I didn’t know where I was, I figured I might as well try to find out. And then I wondered was I alone? So I asked: “Hello? Is anyone there?”
But after some waiting I decided no one was, or if they were they were either deaf or didn’t want to be found. I hoped they weren’t deaf and just sitting around. It would be very problematic if I met someone deaf. Or mute. It would be extremely embarrassing.
I decided to go against the wind so that any smells could come to me and further inform me of my surroundings. The land is roughly even though a little on the hilly side I discover while walking. The sound came first: falling water, there was a waterfall, and so, a river where I could drink. I walked carefully towards the sound, knowing that if there was a waterfall tree would be rocks around it. When I got there I stumbled on a step I had miscalculated and fell straight into the water but it was after the waterfall and rather shallow at this point. It was a nice day and the water wasn’t particularly cold so I sat and let it flow over me. For the second time in a long time I could just enjoy the moment with no one around to take pity of me and tell me I couldn’t see beauty. Maybe I can’t, but I can feel it and I think it’s wonderful. People can sometimes rely on their sight too much. I don’t have that problem and I never will…

 

Speakeasy #160 Bright Darkness part 1

“Tell me if you’re game”
Message received 9:34

I check my watch: 10:13
Two minutes before we get back to work. 
…so tonight then, I think…
I don’t need to think twice about this, she knows this is the only reason I stuck around in the first place. 

“I’m in”
…
Message sent 10:15

Just as the alarm rings. “Get back to work break’s over!” Bellows a huge voice in a stocky little man. 
It takes us a while to get back to work, we may be lazy but we’re organised so when it’s time to work the work gets done. Our team is effective but it’s leaking treason and treachery. Organised treason an treachery of all kinds in this mixing bowl, this cooking pot where the inside mixes and mingles an the outside see only how effective we are. 
Some people here have contact with the outside, it costs them precious food and occasionally clothes but in return they get news an messages from the revolutionaries. 
We are building a tunnel, a huge one, we were told it’s for a train but it was a lie. It’s huge, way too big for a train and it’s long, so long that some of us have forgotten what “outside” looked like. But we keep digging with our big machines. 
Not for long now though. 
What long ago was our own is taken. What was planet Earth is now a colony. N°58 to be exact. If you add up 5 and 8 you get 13. Some call it good luck for us. Others have called the revolution: 13. 
I am one of the few women to work in The Tunnel. At 19, I’m also the youngest. I’ve been here three years, I’m not afraid anymore, and I’ve lost the little innocence I had left. This is my third year and I’ve been accepted as part of the team. My thin fingers led me to the bombs. You need small hands to put together a good bomb, they’re needed to make good holes in the wall so the machines can go in and clear out the rubble. Like everyone else I did my part for this, I supplied the explosives I was asked for with an explanation of how they work, in my spare time I made frag grenades and smoke bombs and very big bombs with timers not unlike the ones I usually make. I won’t be using them. 
I’ve heard rumours, that The Tunnel is where they’ll put us all when they’re done with us, that the aliens three metres tall we’ve seen are only babies and the adults are giant worms that will live in this tunnel and we are the food, some people say they’re building a bunker and preparing to fight a full scale war. They’re just stories but I’ve seen people who believe in them as if they were irrefutable facts. 
I hope we never get to find out what it’s for. 
The aliens came five years ago, when I was 14. The Government was afraid and all nuclear weapons were fired and the battle lost. They didn’t even attack, they just showed how useless our weapons and when we had nothing left they came down and destroyed our biggest capitals to make sure we were disorganised and couldn’t keep attacking. For the next two years I was living in the rubble and I had joined a group of hungry but determined people. We were going to end this, but our hopes were too high and our resources too low, I was the youngest and less useful so I had to go. Then I heard about this place: work in exchange for food and shelter. But most of all the fact that people kept fighting. 
Lunchtime. 

“13 0400”
Message received 12:01

I don’t have much to complain about, my job’s not too hard on me and they make sure we have enough food. I have my own bed if not my own room and I get to be in a room with only women (the only women here). But I’m doing this for the others and to idealistically claim back our planet. I want to live freely. 
…
Bedtime
…
Phone rings
“Go”
Message received 04:00

This is just the beginning