Portrait
The mid winter sky was bright as I watched the snow fall. Like small feathers of a graceful swan. Gentle flakes fell delicately onto his soft locks. The air was crisp and tasted slightly of mint. It wasn’t his striking features that attracted my attention. Not the shape and angle of his nose or his faded puce lips. His dark shaded eyes hadn’t seen me yet. But they weren’t the reason either.
No. It was something else. Something more. It laid inside; buried deep but its strength caused it to raise to the surface. It seemed to shimmer on his skin like a soft smokey glow. The kind of glow that was barely there. It seemed to make him appear colder. As if the soft flakes of snow that fell upon his shoulders did not melt.
The sun’s rays seemed to yearn for him. Reaching out their greedy finger tips to take possession of him. They only managed to touch his hair though; making it glow a soft white gold. But the darkness was greedy too. It covered him, pushing the sun’s presence away from him, limiting the sun to mere hair strands.
The fight between light and darkness did not seem to bother him though. If he noticed them at all he simply ignored them.
Lost was I in my reverie that I had not realised that the sun had captured me. When I became aware it was too late. My feet were deep in the vibrant white snow and as a cloud of breath left my cracked lips, he had noticed me.
His head turned with poise in my direction. In a slow and cultivated manner he moved, as if time itself would wait for him.
When his eyes gazed over me they held a calm indifference. It was as if he was only looking at another plant in the forest. They seem soft but heavy with words unspoken. Like he had seen this game of light and dark played out before him a thousand times over. From the look in his eyes I inferred that:
No one wins.
The corners of his lips turned up a small fraction. Almost mechanical, like it was a foreign gesture to him. But his turned up corners only added to the melancholic expression painted upon his mask. It seemed as if he was suspended in this state.
The snowflakes around him now seem more like dust ashes floating around him.
His words floated on the wind.
“Maybe one would finally win this time”
No. It was something else. Something more. It laid inside; buried deep but its strength caused it to raise to the surface. It seemed to shimmer on his skin like a soft smokey glow. The kind of glow that was barely there. It seemed to make him appear colder. As if the soft flakes of snow that fell upon his shoulders did not melt.
The sun’s rays seemed to yearn for him. Reaching out their greedy finger tips to take possession of him. They only managed to touch his hair though; making it glow a soft white gold. But the darkness was greedy too. It covered him, pushing the sun’s presence away from him, limiting the sun to mere hair strands.
The fight between light and darkness did not seem to bother him though. If he noticed them at all he simply ignored them.
Lost was I in my reverie that I had not realised that the sun had captured me. When I became aware it was too late. My feet were deep in the vibrant white snow and as a cloud of breath left my cracked lips, he had noticed me.
His head turned with poise in my direction. In a slow and cultivated manner he moved, as if time itself would wait for him.
When his eyes gazed over me they held a calm indifference. It was as if he was only looking at another plant in the forest. They seem soft but heavy with words unspoken. Like he had seen this game of light and dark played out before him a thousand times over. From the look in his eyes I inferred that:
No one wins.
The corners of his lips turned up a small fraction. Almost mechanical, like it was a foreign gesture to him. But his turned up corners only added to the melancholic expression painted upon his mask. It seemed as if he was suspended in this state.
The snowflakes around him now seem more like dust ashes floating around him.
His words floated on the wind.
“Maybe one would finally win this time”
