Spring is slow to announce itself this year, shyly hiding behind the remnants of winter’s chill, even as we beckon her onward. Andy is anxious to get the pool open, though that doesn’t look to happen anytime soon with projected temperatures still in late winter mode. A song then, while spring remains a thing of dreams, and the song comes from decades ago, like the photographs that accompany this post. Time has passed, and continues to run; we are all just playing catch up now. In dreams we have the power to traverse time, to bend it in ways the mind has yet to fully understand. I like that sort of mystery – it keeps the world intriguing without being too endangering.
Spare a little candleSave some light for meFigures up aheadMoving in the treesWhite skin in linenPerfume on my wristAnd the full moon that hangs overThese dreams in the mist…
Unlocking the secrets to this song might unlock a memory of my childhood. Only vaguely do I recall it on the radio, and roller skating to it at High Rollers. Very much a child of the 1980’s, I was too young to truly take part in any sort of nightlife then, but old enough to have that decade burned permanently into my heart. According to Wikipedia, “The lyrics of the track describe the fantasy world a woman enters, every time she sleeps, when faced with a difficult situation in life.”
Darkness on the edgeShadows where I standI search for the timeOn a watch with no handsI want to see you clearlyCome closer than thisBut all I rememberAre the dreams in the mist
These dreams go on when I close my eyesEvery second of the night I live another lifeThese dreams that sleep when it’s cold outsideEvery moment I’m awake the further I’m away
Is it cloak and daggerCould it be spring or fall?I walk without a cutThrough a stained glass wallWeaker in my eyesightThe candle in my gripAnd words that have no formAre falling from my lips
These dreams go on when I close my eyesEvery second of the night I live another lifeThese dreams that sleep when it’s cold outsideEvery moment I’m awake the further I’m away
There’s something out thereI can’t resist
The sweetest song is silenceThat I’ve ever heardFunny how your feetIn dreams never touch the earthIn a wood full of princesFreedom is a kissBut the prince hides his faceFrom dreams in the mist
A little wisp of a child, I watched the method of the other skaters, mimicking the leg positions that allowed my limber form to slide beneath the rod without brushing it. When I sensed that I might be the last one able to slide beneath it, and the discomfort of all the watching eyes became too much, I’d lift my back just enough to knock it down. The same way I threw the middle school spelling bee. My shyness kept me mentally and emotionally safe, even as it held me back from being the best. For me, and for what I could handle at the time, it was a worthwhile trade-off; the heat of their gazes left me breathless and almost physically in pain from the world watching me.
“Why did you do that?” he asked. “You could have had it.”
I pretended I didn’t know what he was taking about.
These dreams go on when I close my eyesEvery second of the night I live another lifeThese dreams that sleep when it’s cold outsideEvery moment I’m awake the further I’m away
