Monday, July 30, 2007

The Window Whisperer

"Why are you whispering?" He said, leaning in. I tossed my head back and laughed from the throat, not from the belly, not from that place where he learned to live again. He smiled. It didn't take him long at all to learn to read my lips when mid-syllable the husky, raspy, cigarette lined words disappeared and no sound at all came out. Silence can be very, very loud when you're listening carefully. He listened very carefully.

I perch backwards,balancing on bare feet, on the porch bench. Stare through the wide open walls at the wind sneaking between the houses, at the squirrels changing lanes in 5:00 traffic on the broken fence top. "You're a bird, balancing on a wooden wire" he mumbles. The time has come. He knows it. I smile.

I reach over and push him out. It isn't me that's been caged. Caught in a wire meshed pre-fabricated world. His wings are working now. They were never broken, just taped together, leaving him motionless, toddling in circles, at the bottom of a wallpapered world. He turns and pleads with me, but I nudge him further...down the drive-way, the highway, into the very sunset we fingerpainted in the sky.

"Be free" I whisper. "That's what they made windows for".....

38 comments:

Me said...

Silence can be very, very loud when you're listening carefully.

Amen, sister Sing.

eric1313 said...

What a sad story. Very familiar to me, indeed. I needed similar encouragement from my teachers, as you know. But the odd thing is, I need people to help me write. I need inspiration.

Thank you fo being so much of that inspiration, my friend.

I hope you paint a million more sunsets on every horizon that ever meets your eyes. Color the world with your incindiary palet of gorgeous ideas.

singleton said...

orhan...could you please please remind of this when I'm rambling on and on and on...... "deep and wide, there's a river flowing deep and wide"......

eric...Everyone needs inspiration. It's not odd. Sometimes we need encouragement, sometimes we need to be shoved, sometimes we just need to fall....trip over our own existance. You write beautifully and I love watching it flow. I'm watching you not settle for the mundane, For the staticky black and white that's really just gray.....Spray paint the walls, my friend, it's technacolor!

And this is not a sad story, but a real one. butterflies are free and so they should be....

eric1313 said...

Love and War; Aeons in the AM
E1313

The slash wounds of a heart's night attack, a war of desperation raged below the predawn azure, under full moon grinning down like a death's head--love's darkest banner, love that takes no prisoners, love that was more blood and bone than heart.

Time will heal all wounds, they say,
every bloody rip and tear that
scars the flesh can be traced by feeling.
Every scar becomes a memory.
Every memory a ghost that you know by name and face.

You see their eyes every night.

Some scars fade with time, while other marks will settle deeper than this--becoming an underlying web, a chain for your soul, or a tattoo spreading over the heart's matrix of fractured lines.

Time will see this mark burst, the death of a spirit it slow motion, or a shifitng mosaic of colors reborn to take back the wind like it's yours.
(because it is)

Time will see you fly, soaring and diving like the world is your ocean.
(because it is)

Time will heal all wounds--
and time laughs at all who
try to control its course.

So stop trying--
laugh

take time
and watch...

The air cracks with electric fire,
new wings unfurl in a mosaic,
eyes like god's eyes
are two suns setting
blaze to life in all drama,
hot blood in color and the glory
and in their depths
I see all the time in the world
to heal the old wounds
of love and war

eric1313 said...

Here you go!

I wrote this earlier--it was a sleeker simpler version which was so good! Then I fudged up and it disapeared forever before I could post it as a response. I re-wrote it and took twice as long to do so, but persevered after almost giving up.

Hope you like it. It's my memories, your inspiration. It's about everything under the suns!

Thanks for your story. It isn't sad--it is bittersweet, though. You have to love big and real to let go--otherwise its just passion, which is fine, but it won't last if it's not spontaneous to both sidea.

I know what it is to have to let go--it's not easy at all, because you do love what it is that you want to be free. You miss it dearly, but reconcile your self with the fact you cannot ask it back, it must return on it's own. You--or I, accurately--have to have faith that you (I) will still love that butterfly or angel, even if it never says a word of love to you (I) again.

Quite a balancing act true hearts demand!

I'm smiling, Singleton, but I'm about to pass out. I love writing, but I have to let it go...

Until tomorrow ;)
clink-o!

Beerspitnight said...

your words help to form beautiful images in my mind...thanks as always!

"Caught in a wire meshed pre-fabricated world"

Great line and I'll admit that I sometimes find myself, although unwillingly, being caught in that wire mesh...
but how good it feels when you are able to recognize your position and change it if you wish.

skinnylittleblonde said...

Funny, I didn't see this tale as sad at all....but kinda celebratory and liberating. Anytime, we can open the windows & let the wild birds out, without any flies getting in, is a good time.
ILYS

Lola Starr said...

Love the last line of this. Just love it. Very inspirational to me. Thanks. :)

Lola Starr said...

Oh yeah and my blog's back up for all to read. A change in direction though...

JustRun said...

I agree with your sis, not sad at all. Just realizing when it's time to be free. And then letting go enough to do it.

Rachelle said...

~Breathtaking~

Slainte~
Rachelle

justacoolcat said...

Some birds want to be caged and others wouldn't be caged if they were locked up for a lifetime.

Gill said...

Wow, "be free...." amazing words o'wisdom Singy.
The only prison is the one we forge for ourselves link by link to quote good old Dickens. In some matters it's love, in others it's money.
xo
Blue!

david mcmahon said...

``Squirrels changing lanes in 5:00 traffic''. Ah, you paint a unique word picture. Wonderful prose.

drips of paint said...

So playful...magic finger painting on front porch...I really ought to try something like that...must be the closest feeling to being free....beautiful imagination!

Gill said...

I guess you are off being free somewhere, hopefully with a good friend and a beer!
As for my second comment, just dropping by to let you know I have tagged you. Not sure if you are a meme person, so if not, ignore the request.
Tink! To learning 8 new things about you lovey.
xo
Blue

eric1313 said...

Hope you're OK, Sing.

I just got back from the otherside of Michigan, what hell it was. Been awake for thirty something hours now. Visited brother in the efing clink--not your sweet clink, our clink, everyone's gorgeous clink and the peace and love that goes with it.

Peace out my friend--Love and War, real time, blue lady!


and the thread shot through every
ring like they were each named
after something to do in the dark

with the windows wide open.....

Something the ocean does with the earth under every moon.

SpongyBones said...

Black Eyed Hippie! I would let you blacken both my eyes if you would teach me to write like you do!

eric1313 said...

worried for you, Sing. Please be well.

david mcmahon said...

G'day from Oz, Singleton,

Looking forward to your next post. And do leave me a comment to let me know if I can add you to my blogroll.

Cheers

David

singleton said...

Eric....you know I tumble through your words, and am ever amazed and sometimes even chilled at how prophetic they are, you take the smallest link~clink and build a neon chain....I loved reading the beginnings here and then waking up after this 2nd lightening strike and finding the finished prose, psychedlia in itself, posted on the pages of your porch! And as for having faith and butterflies and love, you got it, man!

SLB...you got it going on, open those damn windows, shoo fly shoo....and butterflies are free! ILYSVVM

beerspit....I've found myself chained to that cage on occassion today, always shocked to find myself shackled to "settling" and always willing to shed my wings for new ones if that's what it took to be free....Peace, man, and forever, for all of us, free

singleton said...

karma....I'm gonna scooch over there soon, I missed roaming through your world....

just run....it's funny isn't it? The letting go timed as wonderfully as the reaching out can make for a beautiful story. It's when we hold on to nothing, that the story changes. Peace, girl

Eric...I'm fine, sorry to hear your hell-week continued.....and digging the words, as always!

singleton said...

Rachelle....are you alright? I gotta get back over there and check on you, that fire news was awful. Here's to wishing better days....Clink! Girl, and soon!

suchacoolcat....Could not have ever ever said it better! Amen brother!

Blue....you are so on! And yes, link by link...
Clinking! To free! Bottoms up!

Spongy...I love ya man, but if I ever have to have another black eye (This would be about my fourth!) I'm gonna give up and start wearing my make-up upside down, just like my days and nights!

singleton said...

Eric....I'm ok, you're ok, just got zapped by that damn lightening bolt again! Arrrrrgggghhh! I feel like a technicolor lightening rod in these hot sultry days of summer! You're writing is rocking, man, rocking!

david....I'd be honored to be added to your pages, sorry for the sporadic visits, I'm down as much as up anymore! A little technical more-money-please interference from Mama Nature!

Peace, boys!

eric1313 said...

sorry to here that lightning keeps nailing you! It's probably because your positively attractive! ;)

clink!

eric1313 said...

seriously, ere you there?

david mcmahon said...

Wonderful, thank you for giving me the nod. You are about to be added to my blogroll!

singleton said...

eric...ta dah! No wonder my hair stands up like this!

david....I've already done the same, just gotta get out and visit more! :)

Katherine said...

"....into the very sunset we fingerpainted in the sky." Just lovely, S.! Thank you.

Shrink Wrapped Scream said...

Jeez girl, that's got to be the nicest way ever to off-load someone!!! (Giggle)

Momentary Madness said...

That's where I've been going..in circles, but reading your post nudged me down the driveway, up and into the light. Very nice- thank you!!
Y;-) Paddy

SHE said...

-a free spirit passing it along...

most beautiful! -your words that window for many souls..

eric1313 said...

Just wanted to say hello to the blue sun queen.

peace~porch party DT's. Miss you and the SLB. We'll psrty with a few people, if we can.

Clink!
to the memories
as they transform
into love
into symbols
on the page

into pictures
in mind
into our hearts
as easily as we
empty this glass
after a beautiful thought
we fill it

in loving memory
we change
into nothing
in
the enveloping darkness
on the blanket
in the sand
our glasses coming together
to make a memory

a picture
that only
a similar heart
can read

Acquaintance said...

This is an interesting blog, I like this a lot.

I used to be a hippie but a lot of things changed in my life over the years but I still have my hippie spirit left inside me.



Later and take care, Mavin. :)

singleton said...

katherine....you know, I swear we did that.....

shrink.....peace comes from the damndest times and places!

she....I hope he takes that spirit and runs.....free.....

eric...perfect! absolutely perfect! "As easily as we empty this glass after a beautiful thought, we fill it...."
Clink! My prophetic friend!

Mavin....:) I used to be a hippie, too, and then so very many things happened, I decided to stay one! Peace, and welcome hippie spirit!

eric1313 said...

There's a beautifull poem just above these few comments...

It's like looking at a tatoo I somehow have no idea how I got it or when, but I did!

Clink!

singleton said...

Eric.... The walls are full of them... henna scribblings from nights gone by...Clink!

Maithri said...

I love these stories...
They move me so deeply..

You are just the coolest person I know.

Love to you dear Butterfly, M

PS I hope you dont mind me walkin back through these pages...

these winged gifts from your heart...

I just cant help myself...