exhale the stars

night and day

sand grains dot our arms and legs as we tiredly sit upon our red checkered blankets, thousands of water droplets clinging to our bodies as a reminder of how long we've been splashing around in the cool ocean. our hair hangs limply atop our heads, but we don't pay mind to any of that as our conversations have not paused since the minute we stepped out of the water. my rose-tinted lips are now stained with sticky mango juice and my eyes serenely scan over our little group.

as the sun slowly starts to meet the sea, the vivid blue of the sky soon follows, like a blanket being pulled to reveal the pure magic underneath. for the first time in hours, our voices stop and we all turn to look up. as soon as the last remnants of day began to fade, different colors started to paint the canvas above, enveloping our world in crimson, orange, lavender, and magenta. the universe has reached for a new palette to celebrate the end of another day and it's simply marvelous.

the hues bounce off of the scenic waves below and we are surrounded by a rich tapestry of colors that even the most skilled of artists could never hope to recreate. try as they might, no one on earth would have been able to pull off these breathtaking shades of dusk for when nature is imitated, there would always be something to remind you that it's just a picture, that it could never compare to the real memory.

i lean back and let out a deep breath of contentment, watching as the quickly disappearing sun pulls the rainbow with it too, sending a flood of indigo darkness our way. i spot the first hints of starlight winking up at us from places we can only dream of flying to. how i wish to meet them someday and thank them for watching over us.

i like to muse the idea that night is so in love with day that it steals the sun away, leaving trillions of other suns as an apology for making us go blind each and every time. of course it always brings the sun back- humans can't bear to be apart from it for too long for fear of permanently losing our way. but, for several hours at a time, night and day are free to love each other in spades, cursed to live like this for all of eternity. of course, this is nothing more than a romantic tragedy stemming from my fanciful mind, but wouldn't it be something if it were true?

➙ the tale of night and day