the trees are full of starlight

Once upon a time, there was a night full of starlight and the wind whistled through the trees in a lonely song about the beginning of time, a time before the first hearts were joined together. I walked along the water, tempted to dabble my hand in the reflected stars, to see if I could pick up a star for just one second.

I stood there, wind ruffling my hair, and felt that strange essence of nature that makes you realize that all is connected, from the breezes that caress you to the earth that holds you up and the sky that offers you a place to climb. I looked around me and saw only trees and stars and water and felt the connectedness and still felt immeasurably alone. I could reach into tomorrow and still not find my amaranth, so reticent is she.

I walked home and took down some books I haven't opened in over a year, fingers tracing staffs and clefs and hundreds, millions of notes. My apartment was dark and empty but as I sang my troubles away it opened up and warmed to me. Long-forgotten memories and words wove themselves into glittering patterns in the air, and for an hour I felt the connectedness and the notes pressed around me so that I was no longer alone.

When I grew weary and put the books away, I lay still with the window open so I could hear the winds singing to me. The notes I had made stole away and I was alone again, but their memory comforted me even as the wind died and I was left to myself and the silence of the stars.

I fell asleep with tears staining my pillow, window shuttered against the world. I woke when the sky was on fire, and pushed myself forward into a new day.