Theme: "Missing"
Scene: Pompeii, the city leveled by Vesuvius back in...way back when. Why Beck? He's whimsical, playfully genius and musically profound...like square dancing to Mozart.
Walking the streets through resurrection, I envisioned storms of blinding ash drifting sans warning. I envisioned roaring waves of magma swallowing (quite unlikely and likely impossible, imagined nonetheless) every brick. And I could see the people. They weren't running or afraid. Quite the opposite, actually. They were soaked in laughter...as if playing a children's game. I dubbed it - Run From Magic Melt You to Your Bones, Orangewater - though in hindsight, a name that would likley fail in finding traction. Morbid, I realize...simply found the moment too sweet to let go. But I've seen it before, should have known then as I've witnessed forever. All happy and fun games must come to an end.
I was halfway through the appropriate "Farewell Ride," exploring salvaged pots that spoke loud and clear - clearly the Pompeiians (?) scored high marks in dept. Arts & Crafts. They were stacked shelves upon shelves. Pots...vases...sculpterous endeavors that resembled cowering, deathly afraid people - people ready and accepting of their coming death...encased in, lava ---
The needle jumped, the soundtrack stopped. I saw their faces...this was no game.
...
The bus dropped me off at the base of Vesuvius. As I began to climb, I could feel but chose to ignore a fear that was tracing my steps. After a brisk and steep 30 minutes, I turned to my left, looked down into the face of this once mighty and merciless, now dormant crater. It was so vast and I was so high up, the first thing my body came up with...vertigo.
It came hard, fast. I quickly knelt, dusted my right across the gravel and dirt path as a means for correction. When I stood, the world was steady. My mind, though - elsewhere. There must be things in existence certain people find impossible to grapple. Maybe I had found one of mine. This terror, once capable of a wrath and rage so violent...beautiful, stunning. Contradiction like I've never seen. And in its days of glory? The things I'd give to see it spit, just once...to see the faces of the ancient and God fearing Romans...
Dude, the fuck did we do?
