Moonboy

As the Sky-dwellers climb wearily through the golden gates of puffing clouds, Almighty Nyame winks his gleaming right eye and the world grows dark: the sun is setting. His left eye opens wide: a beaming bright circle in the charcoal sky emerges. This source of light hardens from a pale slither to a deep yellow orb, smiling at the patient ground below.

It is at this time, when the soaring birds sleep and the parted clouds disperse, that the Moon-worshippers arrive wearing midnight blue masks with glinting flecks of gold that dance in the light. They place polished stones and shards of flint in a perfect circle with a smoky fire in the middle, under the cold shadow cast by the Moon. Boys in blue and gold robes begin a slow drumming as the griot enters the circle:

“Tonight is the night of the Full Moon.  Let me tell you a story…”

Still with their masks on, the Moon worshippers begin to sing and hum while the griot paces and prances in the organic circle of holy rocks. He begins:

With a wink, the Sky Lord’s eye is turned

And the Sun’s rays slowly cease to burn.
The land grows dark, the light runs thin;

For at night, a serious matter lies within….

Moonboy walks alone in his golden mask

Adorned with gold and painted parts.

His movement is brisk, slow, tall, long,

His voice, so graceful, he sings his sad song –

The Luna dance which calls on the Moon

Asking the gods for blessings soon

On this clear, cool, crisp night

To open his soul, deep and bright…

With a sigh his breath flees his shell

And wisps this way, that way, soon to dwell

Up in the sky, breathing new air,

Seemingly content, holding no cares.

He becomes the Moon, shining his great light,

Beaming full, gazing at the sight

Of his people below sending such love,

Yet something is missing in his life above:

Bright yes, and forever glowing full,

The Moon’s calm mind will never dull.

The light he promises will always shine,

“But I need a companion, to call mine.

For you, my friends, I'm proud to call my own,

But I lack a partner, where true love can grow –

In my bold heart, which seems so kind,

Where love’s own faults may leave me blind.

Oh Nyame, my lord, grant my wish!

I serve so loyally, your feet I kiss –

So please, oh Father, give my heart joy

And end my suffering by one divine ploy.”

And that night, oh, how Moonboy cried,

Adding waters to the oceans, now undried.

Our hearts broke for his sad tale,

But what could we do? Mere mortals fail…

With a downcast face, and tear-stained eyes,

Moonboy tried to hold his ties

To heaven above, now starless and lighter

But Moonboy only held on tighter.

His piercing scream of grieving sorrow

Echoed from night until the morrow,

When divine Nyame began to shift his vision

And the Moon was caught in this division:

The Sun, so radiant, gleaming crimson red

Arose, still weary from her golden bed;

Bemused, she sees the forlorn white beast

And wonders why he’s here, floating in the East.

Unseen, she swiftly hides behind him

Causing the world’s light to grow dim,

As her curious acts of wonder

Leave us down here now to ponder

How this glorious and bedazzling meeting

Is possible, real, without cheating.

For it must be the doing of the gods                           

Watching proud, as their son no longer sobs.

He sees her light, hot yellow with lightening,

And cannot stop himself from fighting

With his conscious thoughts of love

Was this blessing sent from Above?

Never had he seen such aura

Of exquisite beauty, in his corner.

Smiling, beaming, he is Home

Finally, he does not feel alone.

She shyly shines when she sees

His love for her burning through the trees,

Over hills, in the Earth and skies

Her heart flutters in surprise –

Their soft eyes meet and brightness bounces

From their hearts, the light renounces;

For, having been so intimate, so near,

The time has come to return the sphere

Back to sleep, back to the eye,

Leaving Moonboy alone to cry

Tears still hot from Sun’s warm light

Soon hardening, cool in Earth’s sad night.

“Oh Sun, don’t leave, I love you so!

With you I'm free, my body is whole –

Your breath, your light, you fertile rays

Nourish my lost heart in this lonesome haze.”

With that, the Moon, his heart so splintered,

Began to fade, Summer turning to Winter –

Having lost his beaming yellow soul,

Now remains a wisp of light in the cold.

A line of pale light blends in the sky,

The Earth-dwellers often wonder why

The beautiful circle of pure light

Has gone to bed, little by little, tonight.

The Moon-worshippers wail in terror at the tragic tale of Moonboy's lost light. Their chants and cries drift through the sky, kindling Nyame the sky god with the same cares. He thunders and the ground grows wet, the soil, once pale from the Moonlight now is darker than night.

Moonboy awakens from a sad sleep, and sparkling with delight, he shouts blessings from above to his faithful worshippers, “When my blue light had scattered into cool night, your cries and prayers roused my shattered soul!” And gradually, the Moon began regaining his strength – his dimmed inner light became illuminated from the spirit of the people. 

Night by night, the Moon emerged into the dark night sky, averting attention from the spotted stars until on the thirtieth night he was whole again, his heart was restored and his hope renewed.

From that night, Moonboy slowly dispersed and re-emerged from a small slice of pale rock to a mighty orb of brilliant light every thirty days, in the hope of meeting with the Sun, whom he loved dearly, and  that they may again share their ethereal beauties in the sky.

Copyright © JRFB 2013

Home.

She came home last week. Her soul, delayed for six years, dragged back here by her weary, wandering, impoverished feet having already deserted their own helpless body; floating aimlessly in the abyss of day dreams and night time terrors, she landed here, on sandy shores, sprinkled with prickled bushes and beach shrubs..


Her body, though encrusted with seaweed and bitter brine from the waters, glimmers like the crystals of water running free down her body, as if they were enjoying their freedom for the dark sea. She is not shipwrecked, nor lost, nor washed ashore on some heavenly bay of the gods, she is home; but she is unaware of how much significance the lapping waves, tainted by milky white tips have.


The sun is up high, it must be nearing midday, but nothing of time or reality can really be felt, only the ecstatic giggling of waves as they gently glide down on the hard, cool sand, before softly retreating home, back into Neptune's cave. Those sparkling waters, the serenity, yet brutality of the waves, the high sun's rays brightening everything in sight; it was all so sublime, so exquisite. Despite her awe of the enticing landscape, Cherry failed to notice the way the Wind, mindful and gentle, charmingly motored a light breeze mirroring how a mighty hand might nudge someone on their way from the sloping hard sand onto the paler, more inviting grains with gentle caresses of his invisible forces. Cherry, on reaching the top of the slope, faintly collapsed in the way that weary bodies keel over after utter exhaustion. The chalky sand began gently soothing her grubby feet, prickled and pinched bythe dune plants which peeped among the fragments of the warm silk beneath her. Cushioning her raw soles, Cherry could not help but allow the delightful massages from the rippling grains and softkisses from the sun to overcome her, and soon those soporific lids yielded to the warm breezes.


A deep mist invaded her psyche, objecting light's admittance into the corridors of her brain. Her eyes flicker from empty room to empty room. Her legs mechanically run, never conquered by fatigue, but fueled by horror. Her chest pulses rapidly. However, like a grandfather clock being launched out a five story window, no time at all seems to pass whilst she darts around the empty chambers, frantic, searching, lost in her own mind; on her own soil.

A tumultuous clap of thunderclouds shakes her from the internal darkness of her mind, but now the hellish gloom pervades reality. The rain beats down. The sand is ripped apart. The grains which were once as soft as velvet are flung up and hammer into the concrete ground. All forces focus on their victim: vicious and merciless, the razor-shards of sand tear at Cherry's salty arms and back as she leaves them exposes having recoiled into a less vulnerable position. She cries out a devastating scream when the relentless stony jabbing now draws blood on her shoulders, but her shouts for mercy do not seem to inspire any sympathy on those who control the weather. Weak, dehydrated and now with her body covered in blood and sand, Cherry seeks refuge by slowly, but productively heaving herself back into the monstrosity that brought her to this doom in the beginning: the Ocean.


Never in her life had anything been as refreshing than the instant Cherry dived into the stirring waves. The violence above the surface softened abruptly and an air of tranquility arose. Cherry descended deeper and deeper into her liquid garrison of still numbness, frantically trying to shake the raucous sound of the splattering pebbles of rain. With her eyes shut and her breath held, she waited. The mist was seeping back into her thoughts; that awful darkness. But the storm, the precipitation, it would rip her limb from limb, shredding her bones, heart and body; she must remain under the refuge of the compassionate sea. The oxygen gathered when inland was depleting, Cherry thought that if she did not surface now her body may collapse and just one sharp intake of salt water may drown her lungs and destroy her. Yet the rain was like icicles plummeting from the dark sky, shivering, waiting to kill. Either way, Cherry was against some force of nature (the Water offered only temperamental relief, she was not expected to stay under forever).

With the light fading, and her head soaring away from consciousness, away from survival, Cherry dragged her now weighty arms through the thick water towards what she believed to be ultimate death directly above her.

The water parted for her struggling head and neck when she came up, vehemently spluttering and coughing out the significant volume of water which had begun to pervade her organs during her dive. Her eyes, kept shut due to the brine burned when she pried them open; the light trickled down from the heavenly sky.

She opened them wide. The rain had stopped. There was the high Sun, smiling, coaxing, as if it had never experienced a storm in its entire existence. The sand hugged onto her body, as if each grain had absorbed the golden elation emitted from the inviting rays of the Sun and wanted to share their joy.

Cherry Reason, perched knee deep in the shallow, lukewarm water scanned the shore: the glowing sand, the deep greens and purples of the vegetation on the banks, the smooth, crystalline sky, free from any clouds.

Here she sat; she is Home.

Copyright © JRFB 2012