I found this picture, and I found it moving in a way that it forced the muse out of me.
The Artist
The waves rolled on and on, like a mercurial whisper caught in mid breath. They wheezed and pulled apart until it seemed they might be two lovers, torn and betrayed by the currents within them. Even the evening sky appeared angry, burning reds and battered grays mixing to create something even hell would quiver before. All the while, upon one stone left standing, two stood in silence. An apocalyptic breeze swept about them both, pushing and pulling to throw them into the bottomless sea that sat all around them. Still, they stood. Quiet. Unmoved. Unfeeling. It could have been the shock at finding everything gone, or the fact that they were the only two left. It was simplistic in its destruction, and yet over bearing. The mother held her daughter's hand while her other hand held a parasail. The daughter said nothing, keeping her voice to herself. If some forgotten god had come and spoken to them, it would have found that nothing could be said. Everything was gone. Destroyed. Vanquished in only an hour, where it had taken centuries upon centuries to build. Evolution was like that, in some ways. Two steps forward and twenty back.
The darkening sky watched the two long into the night; watched as the mother and child just stared out into the nothingness that was thrown about them like skeletons of civilization shattered, crushed, and thrown to the four winds. Still, neither one of them spoke one word. It was as if Eternity and her cruel brother, Fate, had stolen their tongues in a game of chance, leaving them with nothing other than empty faces to express their pain and their loss. Not even the stars that shone above could grant them speech, their burning bodies the only light to the abyss that lay broken at their feet.
A moment passed further, before the mother looked down to the child. The child looked up at her, her auburn eyes staring holes up to her mother. She demanded a question that she knew the answer to.
The mother simply shook her head before looking at the sea ahead and whispered above the sound of the crashing waves, "Listen, my dear."
The little girl copied her mother and looked out across the water. She tried with all her might to listen but found nothing other than the emptiness that threatened to break them both in its powerful grasp.
"I don't hear anothing, Mama," the girl whispered, her voice lost in the wind.
The mother nodded, once, before replying quietly, "Exactly."
Listen, my Dear
2005
The Artist
The waves rolled on and on, like a mercurial whisper caught in mid breath. They wheezed and pulled apart until it seemed they might be two lovers, torn and betrayed by the currents within them. Even the evening sky appeared angry, burning reds and battered grays mixing to create something even hell would quiver before. All the while, upon one stone left standing, two stood in silence. An apocalyptic breeze swept about them both, pushing and pulling to throw them into the bottomless sea that sat all around them. Still, they stood. Quiet. Unmoved. Unfeeling. It could have been the shock at finding everything gone, or the fact that they were the only two left. It was simplistic in its destruction, and yet over bearing. The mother held her daughter's hand while her other hand held a parasail. The daughter said nothing, keeping her voice to herself. If some forgotten god had come and spoken to them, it would have found that nothing could be said. Everything was gone. Destroyed. Vanquished in only an hour, where it had taken centuries upon centuries to build. Evolution was like that, in some ways. Two steps forward and twenty back.
The darkening sky watched the two long into the night; watched as the mother and child just stared out into the nothingness that was thrown about them like skeletons of civilization shattered, crushed, and thrown to the four winds. Still, neither one of them spoke one word. It was as if Eternity and her cruel brother, Fate, had stolen their tongues in a game of chance, leaving them with nothing other than empty faces to express their pain and their loss. Not even the stars that shone above could grant them speech, their burning bodies the only light to the abyss that lay broken at their feet.
A moment passed further, before the mother looked down to the child. The child looked up at her, her auburn eyes staring holes up to her mother. She demanded a question that she knew the answer to.
The mother simply shook her head before looking at the sea ahead and whispered above the sound of the crashing waves, "Listen, my dear."
The little girl copied her mother and looked out across the water. She tried with all her might to listen but found nothing other than the emptiness that threatened to break them both in its powerful grasp.
"I don't hear anothing, Mama," the girl whispered, her voice lost in the wind.
The mother nodded, once, before replying quietly, "Exactly."
Listen, my Dear
2005
