The Sound of Tomorrow

Sooner rather than later I had stumbled into my spirituality, bringing forth a whole new world to explore. Mythology blended with botany, Animism forming the bulk of my beliefs. The creek by my house became my chruch, and the tree behind the swing-set became my maker. The untamed rose learns to grow upwards, for that is where the sunlight hits the brightest. 

I found love unexpectedly while on my journey. The Maid smiles at me from above, and grants me the wisdom to know that they are the one. Distance prevents us from meeting for a year and a day, but I will never forget the first moment they wrapped their arms around me. 

Sometimes, in order to find love we must experience profound heartache. I am no stranger to this concept. My Achilles heart has been eviscerated many times in its vain attempt to find meaning. I learned to create my own meaning. 

Many summers ago, I had longed to travel - and soon the time came where I would have to leave my old life behind to begin a new one. A special place carved out just for me. Out of the ashes I awoke, the Phoenix burning bright within my blood; the pain burning bright within my blood. 

Life goes on, and I begin to chase my dreams. I talk to my lover through strained eyes and late night calls. I leave my hometown behind in the spring when my family decides to move far away out west towards beautiful sunsets and sandy summers. The beaches littered along the lakeside shimmering in the sunlight. 

Small towns dotted along an idealistic dream. Horse and buggies trot their way down mainstreet, and the sidewalks roll up every night at 9pm. Here it was blissfully quiet, here is where my mother and father would sow their seeds.

They filed for a divorce a few years later. 

Slowly emerging from my garden, I taste the forbidden fruit of freedom. And, for the first time in my life I have money of my own. I pull myself back out of fear. The rose inside my heart wounded. I sink dejectedly through the floor. 

My lover kidnaps me a few bright weeks into May, and we flee together into the Underworld; seeking freedom away from haunted nights and fighting parents. I am terrified. I am exhilarated. They sink into a deep depression. I am powerless to help them, but they in all their kind wisdom thank me for saving their soul. 

We run through forests together, nature as witness to our undying love - they introduce me to their friends, and we get along famously. Cryptids tend to band together in cults. Bonfires and crayfish hunting and magic howled out under a blue moon. River spirits bless us with shiny rocks and tokens of fraternity while hazy story circles puff with the smoke of ditch weed. 

I dance with the spirits, and they take my offerings of music and laughter with frenzied glee. I walk through meadows dotted with fairy mounds, and explore uncharted land with my Lover by my side. We create sacred temples under highway underpasses, and pour wine out to the old gods lit in the flames of our mortal souls.

But, like all good things there is always a catch. My Achilles heart longed to speak with my family once more. My electric mind convinces me through the cycles that this will not last forever, and like all dreams I would wake up in cold sweat once more - tainting my new found freedom making it taste as bittersweet as a bottle of pills. The wild and thorny rose within me shudders, willing to breathe its last. 

I thank them for saving my life by almost taking it away myself, the heartache and repressed pain too much for my young heart to bear any longer.

Cold and windy autumn nights haunted my homesick soul. The trees buckled under the weight of the wind, and sadness and sorrow pierced the ivory of my armour....