Originally published in The Holon Project, vol. 2

Beauty is an Act of Rebellion

Because I feel you, I will not fear the absence. Outside the rain again falls. The clouds blacken and roll. Animals seek shelter beneath the stoops and under cars. Birds bequeath their final songs to the wet, descending night. Because I feel you, I will not fear the unknown. The rain taps out the music of our distance and I sense the small ellipses and spirals of your movement...somewhere, far away and silent, you move through the world; beauty boiling the atmosphere.

We sit, hand in hand, our feet buried in the cool sand at the edge of the world. The ocean is silver in the disappearing light and pink clouds begin to form on the horizon. The infinite becomes more infinite as the sky turns black. The horizon disappears and it is only the faraway stars that illuminate the sublime contours of your face. I am in love—with you, with everything. Here, I understand the ineffable. All that matters, all that explains anything to me is right here, next to me, softly humming the music of forever.  

The world waits at the hollow of your neck. All progress halts in the space between your breaths.You were before you were and always will be. You are the carnal infinite in black hair and incandescence. 

Do you remember when we drove, far out away from the city. Our lives became an echo as we pushed farther and deeper into that dark night. Do you remember when you told me the moon was red as the paint that still stained your hands. You told me you loved me in that red glow of moonlight, told me you loved me as your red-stained hands gripped mine as if to save me from falling. 

And from then to forever, there is also only us, our hands intertwined on that dark road beneath the full, red moon. And we fell together in the front seat of my car, and we fall forever, falling in love, falling from grace, falling into the mysterious and beautiful unknown.