Once Upon A Moment

“Once Upon a Moment”

BY SHEB SCHEBELLA

There she stood upon the earth, battered and scarred as she stared up into the stars. Not one wish was she willing to make, only grateful to still be awake to witness a comet go soaring by. She took my hand as she began to cry and spoke “It was a thousand years ago on this day I felt if I had died.” In silence I listened as I remembered Halley’s Comet coming in December of 1985, I was out at sea sailing alone; in 2061 I may if I am around see it again. She clinched my hand tighter and whispered “There it goes and now there it is gone.” I replied while letting out a soft sigh “Fleeting.” She turned toward me and kissed my cheek, she was the kindest of kind little freaks. The world is a strange place, people even more strange, yet within them there are grand little gifts that they will allow you to unwrap slowly if you are patient enough to travel the labyrinth of their mind and color within the lines. When she told me that she had died a thousand years ago on that day I had no Idea at the time what she truly was conveying to me, but she did not expect me to understand. She merely needed another human to hear her voice, a firm hand to hold, another warm soul. She soon pulled me to the ground after the comet vanished and as we sat she opened her backpack and pulled a half filled bottle of red like a rabbit from a hat. She handed it to me and with my teeth I pulled the cork and handed back to her. She sat crossed legged and took a long healthy pull from the bottle, then set it loosely between her thighs. I then lay back slowly with my hands folded behind my head and whispered “A thousand years from this day I shall be dead, but tonight I am very alive.” She did not answer she was lost, lost in the stars, lost in her wine. Nothing was perfect, well except her ass which was hidden in the grass, but for that one particular moment we shared, we where both at peace with the world, at peace in our minds. The night did not belong to either of us, it was just a small gift that was shared with us, and a memory to have forever and the day after that should there be such a time and place. I wanted to write a love poem, but then realized I did not have to, I was living it.