Friday 27 July 2012

One Way Connection.

It was a long, cool, silent walk tonight. I found myself standing in a new mown hay meadow some time after sunset, surrounded by roll bales. A bright light appeared in the darkening eastern sky, declaring the approach of an airliner outbound from EMA. I watched it pass overhead and saw the nose light go out, and I continued to follow its flight until it became a dot and then disappeared.

Those few moments engendered a curiously intense sense of loneliness as I realised that they had brought with them a brief connection, but only consciously one way. As the song has it:

Me here at last on the ground, you in mid air.

It reminded me of a story I wrote once, in which the protagonist is taking a train journey and wondering about all the life going on invisibly beneath the green growth in the passing landscape. It contained the phrase ‘a moment of unrequited awareness.’

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