Paradise Lost

At night when i sleep, i close my eyes...

and the world appears through a blue tempered lens... Floating in a blue neverwhere... life in a silent film, broken by the steady flow of bubbles escaping my breathing regulator...

I lie suspended, face down, taking in the breathless expanse of corals that stretch as far as the eyes can see... schools of fishes of every colour and stripe darting, floating, gliding between the corals, playing little fish games, exploring little fish worlds, living the marine life...

Silently we float, the aliens, befinned and suited up, observing, and moving on... Out in the distance, a shape moves. Slowly you distinguish a turtle, its shell seperating from the dulled colours among the rock, majestically moving at an emperors place. The old man of the sea, his strokes distinguished and dignified, he takes his time and glides about his domain at his leisure. I watch with interest, and perhaps a little awe. His shape, so clumsy and bulbous above water, now seemed to soar with every stroke of his little legs.

Suddenly, unconsciously, my mouth clenches tight onto the regulator. I awake with a start. Sunlight streams through the gaps of the windows. All is silent besides the hissing of the air-conditioner in the little hut i call home for the 5 days i spent in Aur. It was just a dream, i think. But until now, even after leaving the island... My mind feels like its on a boat, rocking with invisible waves. When i close my eyes, imaginary worlds float before my sight, teasing, enticing, drawing me into its cool sweet embrace.

Somedays we capture what we want from the sea.

Somedays, the sea captures us.