Elemental

Sol y Luna

it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing...here is the deepest secret : i carry your heart ( i carry it in my heart )
- e.e. cummings

You lounged beside me with easy grace, your shirtsleeves rolled up to the elbows. As one we watched the sea flow and crash, one briny wave chasing after another in infinite rhythm.

"I brought you a gift."

You reached into your pocket and pulled out a velvet case. From within you lifted a necklace. A pendant fashioned in the shape of the sun and moon dangled from the chain. Both are entwined inside a single sphere, the moon caught in shreds of fire, the sun lassoed within a silvery embrace. Fine, undulating filaments radiated from the center to touch the edges of the circle, framing the motion of their celestial dance.

It was exquisite.

I turned, and held my hair up as you wound the delicate cord around my neck and fastened the clasp. "I had this made while I was visiting South America. I asked the artist to create a special mold for the design. After the necklace was finished, I had him destroy the mold. So you see, it's the only one of its kind in the world." Your voice dropped to a murmur near my ear. "And it belongs to you."


"It's beautiful." I ran my fingers over the chain, felt its weight pool in the dip of my collarbone. The ornament warmed against my skin with uncanny familiarity; I felt my pulse quicken beneath the supple metal, a first creation, an honor far better than I deserve.


"There's a legend that goes with it. The sun and moon are lovers. They loved each other so much that they left their places in the sky to be together. When they did that, the world suffered. The sun's heat burned the earth while the moon's tears flooded it. So it was decided that they should live apart. When the morning comes the moon must yield the night, but the sun knows that she is with him in the same heaven, even if he cannot see her."


In the same heaven. There is no place I can go you will not be.


I leaned over and caressed your face, brought my lips to the curve of your cheek, tasted salt and honeyed wine down the line of your jaw, breathed the scent of rain and wildflowers in the hollow of your throat.

You gently pressed your forehead to mine. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you keep on turning my world upside down?"

I felt something in me break, dissolve, liquify; the sea seemed to pour through, roaring like a thousand hooves in my ears. My vision blurred; moisture beaded on my skin, then slid down in tiny rivulets down my arms to the sieve of my fingers, onto the swath of silk hovering over the barren sands.

My eyes wandered over to the distant horizon, to the the path of the dying sun. "What do you think you do to mine?" I whispered, so quietly that only the wind seemed to hear.

You took my hand in yours, your thumb lightly tracing circles on my wrist. Your eyes glowed sapphire, taking on a secret gleam in the fading light of the Palisades. The shadows of the gloaming cast your countenance into stark, near-perfect symmetry. I remembered how the foreboding beauty of the ancient Greek statues thrilled and terrified me, but oh so much less than you did.

"Well, ma princesse, it's starting to get cold out here. Let's head back in."

I stood, my feet vainly seeking purchase on the uneven bank, wet with the rising tide. A tremor began in my soul, deeper than waves, and I found myself grasping your arm, trying to find an anchor in our linked limbs and the steady heat of your gaze.

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