The Photograph

Did you ever look at someone’s picture so hard that it appeared to come to life and converse with your heart?

So it was, when she rested her gaze upon it.

To some, it was a photograph. To her, it was the most mysterious and magical human map. A map of him.

His face was so searching - for what, she did not know - only that whatever it was, had eluded him for so long now, that his own shadow had begun to smudge his rugged complexion with its dark torment.

She examined his expression, the way the sun settles upon a valley - different bits of his cloud would part for her, allowing glimpses of a beautifully alien and fragile terrain.

Sometimes, she wished she were an artist so she could paint the conflicts she saw. The way she experienced the crippling red of his fire, snaking neatly as lava flow through cliffs of order. Yet, even if she managed to capture this enchanting aura in choked grey and weeping vermilion, how could she possibly do justice to the lonely cowboy movie that played on continuous loop in his stare?

His soulful eyes severed her peace with hooks of muted rage. They paced her mind as caged big cats tired of the circus of life. It was a look that housed both fear and warning, twisting her hope with haunted knowing.

As she grew better acquainted with the drama and subtleties of the image, an unknown water rose within her. It filled her until her logical mind bobbed precariously upon it, a boat barely able to hold itself afloat amidst such a stirring and bracing current.

How she craved the male contrast of him, so wanting to centre herself in the silent screams of his storm. To earth and dry him, weathering his shocks in her own body, absorbing his ache in her calm.

At other times, she wished to strike him with her own lightning force, electrifying him. To jolt him to luminous life, setting ablaze his tortured being with her cardinal colours.

Did you ever look at someone’s picture so hard that it appeared to come to life and converse with your heart?

If not, I ask you, have you ever been in love?