BY EVAN MOGLEY - UNITED STATES
INSTAGRAM: @EVANMOGLEY / TWITTER: @EVANINFEBRUARY
I dream of love in quiet places in my head. It's of blooming lilies and fields of lush grasses. The sky, dotted with clouds of white made from impressionist detail and thick brush strokes. Pristine waters crisscross the land as it adjoins the gardens next to us. Sharp summer violins harmonize in the air. Lulling pianos drift in to vacate any doubts inside as birdsong dots the soundscape. Our flowing shirts of blinding yellows and pinks, unbuttoned in the warmth of the air. Sunlight highlights your chest as we dance. The white trim that travels along the border of your shirt invites my wandering eyes. Our lips smell of clementine and cherry. I look at you, with hair swimming in the sky. Strikingly blonde as it moves along the cerulean color behind it. I can feel that twisted knot, strung together in my stomach begin to tighten. I take a step inward and inhale your favorite cologne. Draped across your chest like an accent piece, it reminds me of the day we first met. You told me back then, it’s reserved for special occasions. As we bumped into each other at a gallery, and shared polite conversation. Notes of cedar and smoke, I blended into the future with your quadrature like properties. I saw you for who you would become and within that moment felt you tighten the first knot within me. You take hold of my shaking hand and squeeze it just a bit tighter. Fingers intertwined like cords of a blind. My breathing finds a rhythm to match the sea. I can't help but laugh as you begin to spin me into the sky.
In love with you to the point that I remain nostalgic for moments alone that I could have shared with you. A symphony uninterrupted begins to slow in rhythm. Left with but a single cherry red viola, the strings pluck to the pulse that travels through my body. We've entered our second act. It's the seductive pull that brings us together as we dance among the clouds. This instance of encompassing attraction. A warm, subtle blush spreads across your cheekbones in the daylight. I can't imagine what you must be thinking. It's the most frustrating thing about you. The thing that keeps me up at night and has me replaying our conversations over and over and over. Yet, you always seem to know what to say. You say something to me at that moment, but I can't make it out. Your lips repeat the same motion again, but I hear nothing other than my own heartbeat in my ears. Your smile, profound and encouraging as you help to stabilize me in the air. We dance through shades of blue and then pink, with not a single eye on us as we monopolize the skyline. If there were an audience, they would be awe-struck with our presence. A star-crossed couple, fallen to Earth, born with chemistry for one another. You remind me of no one that I've met before.
I romanticize this version of us and the details of our lives for years. The way you drape your plaid suit coat over the extra chair to your left, reserving it just for me. How you curl the phone cord around your fingers when you call home, your jeans slightly loose against your waist. Your calloused hands as they lay over mine in the morning, still stained with paint in the creases of your fingernails from the day before. I am at ease in the presence of you. It's those lingering thoughts at night that help me drift to sleep. We're nearing the end of our dance together. I take it all in as expressionism frozen in time. The colors, vibrant and dripping with saturation. Every stroke of the brush is deliberate, to bring me to this moment. You stare at me with welcoming eyes of hazel, and I’ve mastered the secrets of the universe. The sky begins to turn the dial and shifts to a violent shade of violet as we make our descent. Purple has always been my favorite color, but to see you shaded in its light is an image pulled from my
daydreams. My most ardent supporter and my most reliable intuition.
I glance to the sky and see a single star fall to the Earth. I watch its
glorious return to the surface but save the star for someone else.
My eyes, already filled with constellations made from you.