Eva Colombo, The peacock triptych, first chapter: The elusive jewel (
Inspired by Anthony Frederick Sandys painting Vivien, 1863 )
December sun slips out of my hand like a long searched for jewel which I’m able
to grab for an instant and then it’s lost, lost again. I walk along the shadows
hoping to reach it but the shadows cast by the December sun are too long and
they vanish too soon. The sun is gone down, fallen behind the horizon and I find
myself imprisoned into the circle of a streetlamp’s light. The wind from the
north on my face is like the chilly hiss of an envious snake which insinuates
that my beauty will not survive winter. I bend my head and I see a golden leaf
caressing my shadow, I see the muddy water of the ditch shining: a heron has
just flown up. I know where that heron is going. It is going to her who has eyes
of the color of the cirrus clouds at dusk, it is going to take to her my prayer.
She will listen to the heron in silence, then she will lean over the abyss
behind the horizon and she will chant a spell. And the sunrays, dripping with
the blue – green water of the sea where the sun rests, will become peacock’s
feathers for her crown. And the red light of a December sunset will become
carnelian beads for her necklace. Tonight I will dream of her, I will see in
dreamland the sunlight shines from her jewels. And I will know that she
cherishes my beauty as if it were a daphne flower, that flower which buds
towards the end of winter when the chill of despair joins the warmth of hope. |
