Living in Florida, five minutes from some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet, is a gift that we don’t always recognize. The familiar becomes commonplace. However, sitting next to a fire on a beach at sunset, in one of the most beautiful places in the world, can bring back feelings that seem long ago, and far away.
He sat next to her,
watching the sun fall into the Gulf.
The yellow turned into a passionate red.
The palm trees and the beach umbrellas,
and the powdery sand,
white in the sun,
faded into gray and then black,
as the light disappeared on the horizon.
She held his hand tightly,
with a strength of purpose
and a passion
he hadn’t felt in a long time.
It felt like eternity.
When the fire pit wall
lit the night
and the flames danced,
he felt her soul
reach out to touch his.
He knew the magic
of recognition.
Her skin was burnished
in the golden light,
and he gently stroked her arm
stopping often
to squeeze it
in a sign of his devotion.
In his mind’s eye
he was transported to another beach
with sand like diamonds
and translucent smoke
rising from a distant campfire.
It felt like eternity.
He would lie with her
for all of time,
next to an ocean
teeming with life
and comfortable with death.
It would always be
just another day
in paradise.
