Seeing Clearly through the Dark

    'Ponder this' she said. Peering wildly at the menacing swollen sunset secrets rioting mercifully behind the waves forming perfectly before tomorrow.  The glassy ink sea surface looks profoundly harmonious as I take in as much as I can.   Retreating with graceful ebbs and flows on pearl-like sands of burning amber and honey, the ocean is trying to escape itself. The frothing shadows are painted from the easel of pastel watercolors.      

       She releases her grip on this shore-bound reality tossing her head defiantly at the mere enthronement of a thought lodged in her beautiful form.  She makes her way past the lonely sentinels of peaks and troughs.             

    Moving with the surrounding harmony her sly smile points to the slipping minutes of time lost to wondering.  The water glistens.   Amused at this slight rejection it gathers again to caress this dream. This nymph, our Lady of the Ocean begins her plunge down the face of a gently curling dragon.   She is still laughing at the utter joy of being.                     Fecklessly fearless and massively awesome she is stoked and stroked by the sea.  Her life hangs breathlessly balanced.          Momentarily, she is caught in the cacophony of silence as her fin shreds the glassy skin of this tumbling dream creating that cosmic hum only the fishes hear.
        Slowly and surely, the other ladies of the sea make their way along the now sullen colored shore. Strung together like flaming pearls in the receding sunset, they stoop to greet the limpets clinging to this reef of time.  

      This is celestial seafood market for Tongan women. Looking up, one notices the faint shimmer of green as the sun makes its final grasp at sky as it plunges into the carbon black waters like a drowning, fiery man.  The looming darkness stands ready to take the stage. A faint red glow appears as the wash of light relents its hold on this earth. 

     Just a small marble lost in the grab bag of the universe as it becomes clearer that our old friend Mars is making his presence known. His curving profile is clearly etched as the sunlight glints on his worn and weary face.

       The first candle is lit for the evening.  In the gathering coolness, the Umu fires are brought to life.   Soon the Umu will be smothered by the wet banana leaves and burlap to keep the temperature comfortably hot.   The suckling pig is roasting with the leaf wrapped fish.  The taro is toasting to a nut brown. The manioc is struggling for a place in the Umu.  The feast is set Tongan style, with stacks of fruit and fried fish with the suckling pig as the guest of honor on the long table cloth on the ground.         

       There are hundreds of ways to prepare coconut creme in Tonga which is made for the dipping of everything. Only in Tonga can you eat until you perish. Many do.