Last dance in the lamplight

Last dance in the lamplight

Impeccable quiet, wind calmed to dreamy hum, sun spreading her arms wide, twirling one last, slow pirouette on the hand of earth’s axis. The fabric of her misty dress floats on the air, organza shimmering in the lamplight of the day’s final dance.

The music fades, just the reverberation of bow to string remains. All is hushing, aching, breathing deep and wistful, falling mesmerized in the moment’s beauty.

We glide on the setting sigh, wheels hushing on snow’s rich carpet. Diamonds glitter on every side, the cold air is sweet, and all feels brilliant, deliciously haunted.

So we travel on, somewhere before us gemmed dust gusts into air, dancing, blurring the air like bridal rice, beckoning us to follow. The vehicle ahead passes our corner without a glance, but we slow down. Now, instead of bashful sideways glances towards her peerless face, we turn to look at the sun, and soar in her smile the last five minutes of our journey.

Past the colony, whose lights hem in the vastness of our nights, and dim in the brilliance of sunrise.

Past the dance hall of generations past, with plank walls and broken windows and stripped floor testifying to the community once spawned in it.

Past the last green electrical box buried in ditch’s drift, we drive. And it rises into the setting sun, the homestead, nurtured, tilled, planted, painted, tinned, and trimmed with loving hands.

Sun kisses it goodnight, begging for more time, wishing for one more dance, shedding silent tear for the beauty she must surrender to night’s grasp. But we smile, our own hearts hurting; we sigh, waiting to sing in the warmth of summer’s air; we turn our gaze from heaven to the golden windows of home. Inside, heaven’s echoes reverberate from the walls and windows and floors in the hearts of redeemed people.

We light our fire, quieting our souls in its subdued light, it’s mellow heat, it’s promise of safekeeping till dawn.

And we are home, journeying to our real home, dancing in the echoed light while it is here, till we are swept into grander brilliance, and the smile and warm embrace of our Creator.