I can’t sleep.
The crickets are chorusing in woeful complaint of air dense with droopy curtains of heat.
The fan slowly clicks and creaks on it’s orbit moving the foggy tepid air in invisible whirls around my room.
It’s no wonder I’m singing Peggy Lee.
I fumble my violet-tipped fingers through a tumbler of ice cubes, giddy with the burn of frozen relief. I wonder where you are now and why you aren’t running the melting dripping crystal prisms along the ridges and curves of my skin. I wonder why we’re not sitting in front of the fan pressing cold wet cloths to each other’s bodies, blowing away the valleys and waves of goosebumps. I wonder why we’re not in the same place right now, bringing each other frozen slices of strawberries to melt on each other’s tongues. I’d happily suck the little strawberry seeds from between your teeth.
This weather is not conducive to sleep. It’s not conducive to peace or embrace or warm tender whispers. It’s the kind of weather that leaves people smoky-eyed and restless. Nights like this make lily gardens spontaneously combust in flame, make women go into labour early, make water pipes burst and cats howl at the moon. Nights like tonight are landscapes meant to be clawed through by fingernails, ridden across like wild Black Beauty and plummeted into like a pearl-diver exploring shimmery green seaweed in a dark indigo abyss.
If you were here, I’d tell you where the pearls are hidden.
If you were here…
I’d mix us up midnight margaritas in the hour that never ends; doesn’t know a pumpkin from a glass slipper and certainly doesn’t dwindle into any tomorrows. We could lie out on the damp grass with our clothes trailing behind us like fallen stars and frozen lemony tequila running down our chins as we tell each other stories about doorways and alleyways and paper-lantern-lit streets.
We could jump the fence and crawl into the neighbour’s blow up kiddies pool; float on our backs waiting for the moon to fall into our palms then feed each other bites of satiny astral cheesecake. I’d give you the biggest slice and lick the cream from your fingers, purring with a content spent fed flicker of a shimmy.
I wonder if you would find a ladder tall enough to pull the night down in ink blots for me. I’d like to stain my skin with the cool velvet of the merlot sky and let it dry in the hot breeze.
All too soon though, I know I will blink and lines of fire will streak the sky.
This night will be gone, taking with it my wonderment of you.
And yet.
I know the sun will again sink into indigo and I won’t be able to help but notice the faintest hint of red wine in the air.
copyright © 2009, Holly Ringland.
Steve Strodder...
not a summer person either holly?
i have to say though,last night was beautiful once it cooled off.
the air was thick with the smells of jasmine and my next door neighbors kids eating dozens of perfectly ripe mangoes, to top it all off the roof of my house cooled me off enough to actually be able to hug the love of my life, haha it was a night full of creaking fans, tequila and lemon in chilled glasses and tantlising smells., you have captured the nightside of summer in this story well done
Holly Ringland replied
i am steve, i love summer (night jasmine, mangoes for dinner)... but when nights don’t cool down… or when heatwaves hit… just like everyone else, i go a bit crazy. thanks for reading and enjoying this, i’m glad you did.
Jessica Tremp
what a stunner…i’m feeling similar tonight
Holly Ringland replied
darling, is this heat ever going to end? stunner... oh thank you sweetheart xx
Robert Knapman
You are seductress Holly Ringland…
Holly Ringland replied
Oh shoosh Robert… :)
Thanks so much for reading my work.
lianne
Holly, as always I sink into your words, this time almost drowning in them. Such “humid” longing expressed in imagery so sensual, so alive with color, taste, texture, sound – all to say “I miss you, want you” in your inimitable style. Indescribably beautiful.
Holly Ringland replied
inimitable style... god you make me feel special lianne. it just doesn’t wear off you know, the novelty of receiving your responses to my work, the knowing that you’ve squeezed everything out of my words that i filled them with… the colour, taste, texture, sound… thank you so much. you are so kind and generous and i appreciate it enormously.
sandraellen
Delicious Holly….....and i love the references to all things ‘alcohol’ dotted throughout this tempestuous, sensuous piece, oh yeah!!
sandra :()
Holly Ringland replied
cheers sandra, for tempestuous (i love that) the next round’s on me… thanks so much, i’m really pleased you enjoyed the read.
CloudChaser
you make me drunk. xx
CloudChaser
in a delicious heady way of course. ;-)) xx
Holly Ringland replied
of course sweetpea, of course! you are the ants pants, thank you so much xx
butchart
every line deserves several reads…...... a gorgeous ramble through hot midnight thoughts and fantasies…..... god you are good…... bravo….......b
Holly Ringland replied
well this comment of yours b, requires the i don a full tulle skirt, take a deep curtsey and blush with gratitude. thank you so much. a gorgeous ramble through hot midnight thoughts and fantasies... exactly.
AFogArty
I feel as if I was there as these wonderful words joined in the harmony of your work.
Fantastic!
Holly Ringland replied
thanks so much fog… i’m so pleased you found the little doorway in these words to crawl on through. cheers :)
burntblue
beautiful… Sensual… Thoughtful… And lovely.
Holly Ringland replied
ahhhhhhhhh lovely blue… just as your words feel to me. thanks so much :)
jcmontgomery
Again you have woven me into a sensuous braid that is left in a serious need of unwinding…
Holly Ringland replied
oh you. glorious lovely you. sensuous braids are all the rave, you wear it so well… thanks honey xx
Kim Buck
It was 35 degrees here at 8am in Adelaide this morning… the town is full of smoky-eyed and restless (i love this) people but your words have given me, at least, a moment’s respite!
A midnight margarita… yes please…
Holly Ringland replied
i’m chopping limes madly as we speak kim! i am so glad, that in the midst of this insane heat, these little words of mine were some sort of reprieve for you. thanks for reading :)
nancyames
This is a very effective piece of writing, hits all the sensual senses. I especially like: “All too soon though, I know I will blink and lines of fire will streak the sky.”
Holly Ringland replied
thank you nancy, you are so kind with your words… i’m pleased you enjoy my work and always love knowing about the ‘favourite bits’. so thank you very much.
XtineB
Oh, I know this mood – this yearning, this nostalgia, this sadness – and how the restlessness of hot nights can take you on journeys that, in sane weather, you have more control over. Love this …”If you were here, I’d tell you where the pearls are hidden.” Just love it.
Holly Ringland replied
you got it xtine, you got it. thank you for these lovely words and reading my work, it means the world to me.
mstrace
There are so many trip the light fantastic lines in this piece, I don’t know where to begin it took me on such a ride. I felt the heat and the…you know, other kinda heat. Whoa Betsey. Put a little hitch back in my giddyup…honest to gawd.
romping, fuego, brilliant!!!
Holly Ringland replied
oh honey, i think this tops it, i think is my all time favourite comment you have ever grace me with in response to my work. trip the light fantastic? whoa betsey? giddyup, fuego? oh golly, i don’t even know where to begin with how much i loved this. thank you gorgeous woman… i’m soooo delighted these words evoked this response! xxxx
ShadowDancer
Holly, as always your writing takes me to a place deep inside myself, my senses afire from your beautiful words… I wasn’t there for the heatwave in Australia, but I felt the flames from this. What a sultry fever you have worked up.
Holly Ringland replied
lovely girl of shadows and words, it is my absolute pleasure and delight to know how you feel my words. i thank you so much wholeheartedly for always knowing exactly what i mean and reading them the way they are meant to be felt when penned.
Benjamin Ruskin
Im having one of these nights tonight!! Thanks for sharing your supreme writing Holly… satin moon cheesecake sounds delcious! I cant single anything out in particular without doing a disservice, it is every line in this amazing work that is delicious!
Holly Ringland replied
ben, you’re too kind. thank you so much. thanks for checking out my work, i’m really so happy you found it and enjoyed it.
Cassey
Sensually delicious. I thirst for more from that luscious mind. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Holly Ringland replied
thank you so much cass… luscious mind, geez, i like that. thank you, thank you, thank you.
tarawilson
i am completely at a loss for words right now! i might return if i can think of a comment does this piece of writing justice! i love the clothes as fallen stars… all your elements in this are wonderful…
this is absolutely beautiful and i enjoyed it so much – thank you for writing & sharing your gift. =)
sugargirl
You illustrated a summer’s night with such atmosphere that I was momentarily lost.
IntriCate
Wow, how lovely and evocative! Hard to pick a favourite bit, but I especially liked this:
“I’d mix us up midnight margaritas in the hour that never ends; doesn’t know a pumpkin from a glass slipper and certainly doesn’t dwindle into any tomorrows.”
Rhenastarr
Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. WOW, simply WOW!!!!! Love your descriptive words that flow like black velvet across the mind.
oneperfectkiss
just came back to leave a kiss here for you Holly. X
sandraellen
Holly, only just realised that i have already left a comment on this sensational piece…..........i adore it even more today. Lots to be said for revisitng things, i have experienced more from this adventure.
“If you were here, I’d tell you where the pearls are hidden.
If you were here…”
i have an absolute love for ‘pearls’....they, to me, are a secret,a gem…...a truth.
sandra x
lolowe
There are so many lines to just read over and over again. I don’t think I can read this piece and not feel the heat, or see the beauty you have brought before us. Bravo.