There's a certain quality of light that you only see in the early, early morning.
Before the sun's dayflame comes up, when the star-sky is retreating, the eastern horizon glows,
and all the shadows are still purple-blue.
Have you seen it?

When you're a kid, you sleep late every morning you have a choice.
And on mornings when you don't - getting up for school, or sports practice -
you're too busy yawning and rubbing your eyes to notice.
You don't often see it, when you're a kid.

But there are times, too, when you wake up early, early;
and you find that special quality of light, spread out across the sky.
Have you seen it?
Easter morning, when you're real little,
and you know the Easter Bunny's come and left you magic surprises to find in the dewy grass.
Or the morning of a long trip, when your dad wakes you, your eyes fly open
and you jump out of bed, ready to get in the car, ready to be there.

Do you know?

You might have found it on campouts, up late with your friends the night before,
laughing and eating burnt marshmallows and smelling woodsmoke,
up past midnight...
and still, you wake up to see the sunrise spreading out across the whole big sky above you.
Your friends are still sleeping, burrowed way deep in their sleeping bags,
and it's just you and the endlessly deep sky.
You, alone, open your eyes, and see that sky, that big sky
full of indigo-fire;
and it's so sensual that you gasp out loud.

What about that?
Have you seen?

And what about a different campout, a campout where it's not you and all your friends;
it's just you, and one other friend?
Have you gone?

Just the two of you. You and your friend.
And you're both awake; and it's early, early.

And your friend is not burrowed deep in his sleeping bag,
he's not in his sleeping bag at all...
he's right there, with you, inside your sleeping bag,
and you aren't alone, you're both looking up at the sunrise spreading out across the whole big endlessly deep sky above you, and down inside the bag, you aren't alone, you're touching him, side by side, all the way down, shoulders and ribs and hipbones and thighs and legs, bare, and your arms are intertwined, and his hand is in yours, and your fingers are intertwined, and there's nothing between your face and the deep rich color in the sky unfolding above you for long moment upon long moment...
until the sky goes away, and a deep purple-blue shadow falls across your face,
and then his lips find yours, and you gasp, sensual, and it's deep, deep...

What about that?
Have you gone?
Do you know?
Can you feel?

Can I lie next to you, now? Can I intertwine my fingers with yours, so deep that we can't tell them apart? Can I lift you out of deep deep sleep? Will you let me show you that pure quality of light, so early, early? Can you see? Will you go with me?

Can I reach you now, can I touch you, touch you all the way down, all the way down deep? Do you feel me touch your lips with mine, so feather-light, sensual? Will you be with me, all the way into the light?

Can we fly, now? Can we soar, can we fly so high that we drown in the limitless sky with no horizons and no boundaries?

What about that?
Do you feel?
What do you say?

~