Afternoon Reflections

Resting in a field, dozing in the sun, I see a woman walking among the flowers. The field is full of wildflowers of every hue. As she walks among the posies, she stops, her hips no longer swaying. She stoops, her body moving in an even smooth flow, as if her body is made of warm caramel. I watch her-- thinking she moves like a dream. Once again she stands tall and continues her sway, thru the flowers. Her dress is bright white in the sun. The flowers are hazy, their colors blending, purple, red, orange, yellow and blue.

Her hair shines in the noonday light, a cooper hue. The outline of her legs is visible thru the thin cotton of her dress. The dress skimming each of her curves, as a lover’s hands surly would. Near an old misshaped tree, she stops, she looks around, first at the meadow littered with flowers and then out toward the lake. The lake stretches like a sea of blue glass, smooth and clear, no ripples on the surface during the heat of the day. All the creatures save this lovely woodland nymph, asleep in the warmth of the sun. Dozing in the heavy heat of the afternoon, lazing away the daylight hours, counting not the passage of time nor concerning themselves with the business of others contented to sleep soaking up the energy all around them.

The sun reflected off the lake, casting this beauty in the most curious light. In a flourish of movement, she kneels down in the grass under the tree and removes her dress, slowly, inch by inch it creeps up her body revealing her lovely form. As if she was going slowly - with deliberation to enjoy the kiss of cotton across her skin. Inch by inch the cotton dress made its way over her head, as my heartbeat sped up beat by beat. Inch- beat, inch -beat, inch -beat. Over and over until her arms were above her head and the dress drifting down her back and onto the bed of grass at her feet.
Arching her back as a cat does - after a long nap, she reached her arms to the sky, her naked form lush, her skin creamy - white and luminous in the daylight.

As if she suddenly sensed the weight of my direct caressing gaze, she turns in my direction. Her eyes sparkling like diamonds and dark with a knowing. A knowing that she is being watched, a knowing that she is being enjoyed - that she is a lovely as the flowers around her and as carefree as the dragon fly dancing across the lake admiring its reflection.

Turning her gaze and straightening her back, she reaches behind her and sweeps up her hair, tying it like a copper coil. Then she begins to walk towards the lake, in a slow easy walk, like the way honey falls from the spoon over a cup of tea - in a smooth fluid ribbon.

At the edge of the lake, she pauses for a moment and then begins to walk into the water. I envy the water, as it laps at her knees; caressing in its smooth fluid rhythmic way. Deeper and deeper she goes into the water. The water rising to the swell of her breast, to the tops of her shoulder blades, to flow along her neck swallowing her into its depths her form consumed right before my eyes. Then her head is but a reflection of copper in the blue calm waters. Then as my heart beat quickens once again, the lake is as smooth and undisturbed as it had previously been.

The waters placid and still, a calmness that belies the panic in my heart stretched out before me. The water once again a sheet of glass, its mirror like surface cool and smooth undistributed and unmoving. The sun a brightness reflected as a ball of fire in its center.

I count the beats of my heart and slowly the wind begins to blow and the sky begins to change - has it been seconds, minutes, hours. I cannot be sure. Why am I rooted here, in this place? Why have I not run, what sort of spell did this nymph cast upon me. And I begin to wonder - if it was all a dream...