... and she paints the skies with clouds.

"Love " by Kirra

A young girl dressed in white sun dress was on her way to the chapel up the hills. She had long shiny hair that was black as ebony and she had little curls that crested her dark brown eyes... those windows to her innocent soul, twinkled like the stars in the evening skies. She wore a red butterfly on her hair that her mother gave her on her 4^th birthday and held a handful of wild sunflowers and blackberries that she picked along the narrow road from home. One hand played with the little heart-shaped jade locket chained to her neck and she hummed a little self-composed tune while she hopped all the way through the meadows. When she reached the steepest part of the hill, she stopped to survey the seashore down below and the beautiful white gazebo by the fire tree. The first time she saw that scenery- not really a long time ago, she instantly made her childish wish and turned to the lonely shrub next to her for her witness. She was dreaming that someday when she grew up, she would marry the man she would love forever in that beautiful place.

Such a thing of beauty! she thought, for it had a wooden framework with a glorious white coat that contrasted the stark blue horizons. She could only tell the sea from the skies through the cottony clouds that were artistically dispersed from east to west. She adored the picturesque scenery that greatly depicted her youthful and artistic imagination. She saw ice cream castles and satin bunnies, floating right above the all- tangerine flowers, that crowned the ever-thankful branches of a giant Fire tree.

Tangerine flowers, cobalt skies, turquoise waters, white gazebo... they all made one big and intangible dream that were captured in a single frame and stored in the corners of her mind. But there was something missing. She didn't know yet what it was.

30 years after, the girl turned into a fine young woman dreaming the same dream and hoping for the same wishes to come true. She still stands on that hill alone witnessing how the gazebo of her dreams has succumbed to the glory of an unruly vines’ purple bouquets, and surrendered to the slow decay of time. The sea flows in with a salty breeze and ebbs away with a name that spins the maypoles of her happiness. Now she knows what was missing from the panorama of her youthful dreams - she as a bride... and the ancient person of her heart as the groom!

One hand plays with the little heart-shaped locket chained to her neck, while she looks at the red butterfly hair ornament in her hand. The ice cream castles and satin bunnies took on different shapes and sizes, and are now floating right above the all- tangerine flowers, that still crown the ever-thankful branches of the giant Fire tree.

But her groom is gone... leaving all the memories of a vow once made yet totally broken.


A salty breeze carries the soothing whispers of the tide that flows in ... and his name slowly fades with the clouds as the ebb tide washes off his face from the canvass.