Every image has a story
Small images trigger pain, thoughts drive feelings knowledge insane, calling one thing some thing sets thing for nu thing, breathing automatically feeling flow head losing brain acting dyspraxic, so another mission finding self leading mind into vision so lost so lost needing permission… step back sit tight Simple nature take flight.
Let me be… let me be, let me travel from land to sea, why oh why d’you put me here, this land around is full of fear.
The sea is where free energy flows, the water is, all I know.
Let me float with wind and tide, let me escape these humans who have no eyes,
No eyes to see what’s wrong, no freedom to feel their inner song, to shout out loud, to feel their soul, they just dig and dig inside their hole.
But when they realise they are in too deep, the sides to climb are just too steep.
So please release me from this tree and let me feel the water, surround me.
It’s hard to say, I could stop and some days I decide today I won’t, but then something happens, friends call me up and we’re off again. I tell myself I don’t have anything better to do so I might as well enjoy now, and it takes the edge of things. You know calms the mind, dulls the mind… you don’t have to think so much. And look I once stoped for two days so it’s not like I can’t.
They were breathing heavily as they crossed the motorway. It had been a long walk along the side of the fence until they had found a way up and over. They crossed the lanes quickly as the traffic was thin and now with fatigue setting in they needed somewhere to sleep. Slipping and sliding across the loose earth on the banks below the metal barriers, they slowly forced their way through the thick brambles towards the silhouette of a building in the distance.
After 40 minutes or so they arrived, the windows and doors boarded up but the building looked solid. A concrete masterpiece. After a few minutes they found a gap in the fence and had climbed the sharp edges of the spiral staircase, when they reached the top Billy pushed forcefully against the old door and it caved in.
The pace of the afternoon was slow, but the heat made slow the only possible choice. As with all times like these the second hand did it’s best impersonation of the minute hand and the mind began to race.
Jamie stood there staring at the group of his fellow climbers and wished his mind would stop, I suppose the constant inputs from the boredom machines, the social sites and the constant comparisons had trained the mind to move fast. Removed the ability of the mind to go slow or encouraged the mind to constantly evaluate. He shook his body like a dog shaking his fur after being told off by his master, literally shaking the anxiety from his body.
‘So what do you do for money?’ The tall blonde man said to Jamie, surprising him. Jamie looked around the cliff checking that the question was directed at him.
‘Ummm…’ Jamie stuttered, not entirely sure how to answer. ‘I have an apartment I rent.’
‘Perfect’ the tall blonde man replied ‘That’s great, I mean that’s all you need’.
‘Yea… But it won’t last forever. I mean at some point I will have to do something else.’
The blonde man smiled at Jamie and stood up. ‘Well when you need to you will. And at that point you will be rich, rich in rocks.’
It sounded like he was going to continue, but he didn’t, he just walked away clasping the hand of his daughter. Jamie stared at the back of the couple confused but finally the second hand slowed, his shoulders relaxed, the race was run.
I remember playing with the kids, I remember what it was like to step into a room of children and feel their expectations. They were always ready to have fun and cause mischief. But the greatest thing about the children is that they didn’t carry any of the adult shit their heads, their minds were simple and they saw the beauty and excitement in everything.
That’s what inspired my journey, that’s why I left the city I wanted to look and to stare at the simple things, see the beauty in the ugliness, see the beauty in all the small things that we ignore. I wanted to look at things with a child’s eyes, to not worry about what everyone thought, to turn the brain off and kindle the excitement inside me for the world and the people in it.
… and so I did, I stopped to look at things and found Dragons.
They ran, they ran and ran, they couldn’t stop, not to think, not to look, not to pause for thought. They were making all the wrong decisions, they went right instead of left, they tried to scramble when they should have stuck to the path. They called to each other when they needed silence. But they tried. They both knew that there was a way, they both wanted to find a way, but every decision they made ended in a clash and because of this, they stopped. They stopped trying to escape and were caught.
And here only when hope was gone, when captivity was inevitable did they see each other, they felt each others touch, the pain and friction between them melted away, they looked into each other’s eyes and their hearts beat together. Despite the desperation in their situation, they smiled and felt the warm glow of each other’s love.
They turned away from each other, away from their captors and looked out across the countryside, the landscape was wild, unkept, the terrain uneven and the fauna sharp and aggressive. But there was a peacefulness to the energy, an acceptance from the couple in their fate. They smiled together and looked up to the clouds. As they stared towards the sky the autumn leaves rose up above them swirling, spinning, drifting, bouncing like a butterfly… sometimes leaves go up.
They had been walking through the night and were tired, not only from the lack of sleep, but from the mental fatigue. Hopping from shadow to shadow had taken its toll and the two of them were ready to rest their eyes.
They had followed the gorge for the last few hours and as they rounded the bend they saw the entrance to the cave. James stopped turned to Tom and lowered his hand gently to the floor. Understanding the instruction Tom sank to the ground and crawled on his belly to the rock that James was using for cover.
James pointed at his eyes with a forked fore and middle finger and then pointed at the cave. At the entrance stood a fridge, some chairs stacked on top of each other, what looked like an electricity cable running to the apex of the roof and a beautifully tiled floor.
Tom shook his head and they shrank to the the ground and onto their backs staring up at the stars in the sky.
‘No way’ Tom said
‘I am shattered mate, I can’t keep going and the sun will come up soon, then what?’
‘It’s too dangerous, look at it people live there, it’s not like some abandoned goat shelter, people look like they have made a home there.’
‘Well what do you suggest then? We just keep walking until the sun comes up and we collapse on the road!’
‘James’ Tom said sternly ‘I am not trying to be shitty I am as tired as you are, but you heard what they said about bandits on this road, that, over there looks like bandit territory.’
‘Remember that sign we saw yesterday, with the shot gun holes in it.’ James rocked his head sideways in agreement, ‘well I for one don’t want to be used for target practice.’
James sighed and the pair turned from their eyes from sky back down to the cave.
‘Okay, well I am gonna sleep here then, I can’t go on anymore, you can take first watch.’
There was a loud crack like a stick being broken, then the sound of rocks falling towards them. James and Tom both sat up straight fatigue vanishing in an instance.
‘Were you asleep?’ James blurted out
‘No… yea… I don’t know.’ Tom replied panicking
‘For F*** Sake!’
More stones tumbled towards them and then a deep voice from above. What was shouted they could not comprehend, but they didn’t wait for the translation. The two boys leapt up and bolted down the mountain side. Slipping and sliding, hopping, jumping and falling they scrambled towards the cave. A shot rang out behind them.
‘Which way?’ Tom called out.
‘The cave’ James replied
Crack! another shot rang out
‘No way, the gorge, go downstream. We gotta get to the river. Go go go…’
He hid behind the tar barrel waiting for the sailor to move, time was short but if he went now he would definitely give his position away, so he sat, huddled, waiting.
There seemed to be some discussion about the theft but the facts that Toby could overhear didn’t worry him. They were thin on the ground and they definitely didn’t know he was aboard. The two sailors finally departed, Toby had his chance.
He crawled out from behind the barrel and crossed the deck, making sure to avoid the ropes and the wooden board, that looked as if might squeal and give his position away. He paused by the mast, double checked the last few meters and scrabbled to the ladder. Swiftly he spun around and climbed down, as he got close to the water he gave one last look back to the deck, no one, then slid into the water.
After six or seven strokes he was clear, he had to swim fast, but not make any sound, he kept his body low, deep in the water, taking long strokes praying the morning sun would not reveal him.
Finally he pulled himself up the pebbled beach and ran towards the undergrowth. He felt his pocket, it was still there. He let our a small cry of happiness, smiled and vanished into the olive grove.
Alex entered the room, the children knew they should still be asleep, but the arrival of their Uncle the night before was too exciting and the anticipation of fun and games too much to keep their eyes closed.
‘What is going on here you little ratbags.’ Uncle Alex teased the children. There was some little giggling coming from under the duvet. ‘Are there two little thieves hiding from their Uncle under there?’ Alex moved towards the bed where two small children were hiding.
‘We not thieves’ came a muffled denial and then a head popped out, ‘you are a thief’ said Sarah
‘Yea you are a thief’ confirmed her younger brother.
‘I am not’ Uncle Alex replied before jumping on the bed to wrestle the two children. After a few minutes of rough and tumble Sarah’s brother pipped up.
‘Why did you call us thieves?’
Uncle Alex pointed to the jar by the side of the bed filled up with fairy lights. ‘Look, there is the evidence’
Sarah and her brother looked at each other puzzled.
‘You two have been stealing the stars’
Life From the Dirt 