Moments and Lovers

Like smoke, the forest rose up and disappeared around them. Their eyes closing now, they lost full view of their surroundings but still had the feelings of it. Greys, beiges and whites of the forest fell around them in the mind's eye. They perceived its smells of fallen leaves soaked in freezing water from the nights before, the sounds of birds calling out from their silver birch vantage points, the feel of the cold air flowing around them and through the cracks in their clothing. There they stood in the middle of these trees, holding one another in pure esctacy and bliss. Forgetting all the world and feeling so helpless in each others arms. Losing one sense only increased the potency of their others. Our pair of Prospective Lovers, holding each other in the privacy of the forest.
There is no fear or shame, with their eyes closed they are oblivious to the world around them. Our Prospective Lovers notice the smells of the forest have disappeared into the background. Rotting trunks of deceased trees are replaced. The foreground is now consumed by one another. They rest in the smalls of each others necks, their individual scents meet and begin to dance above their heads. Our Prospective Lovers, with their eyes closed, miss this performance but are draped in the musk of their interwined scent.
They hold, but neither too tightly, both close to their bodies and hearts. Our Prospective Lovers, meld into one another, hearing each others heart beats loud in their own ears. The percussion of their souls phasing in and out with one another, reassuring both that they aren't alone in their sightless hold. The foreground is replaced once again. Calls of the birds, the trees talking with the wind as their breath. For our Prospective Lovers, these are pushed into the background.
The world is receeding and time, although elapsing, took to having no meaning. In that moment, they stood there forever. Our Prospective Lovers breath quickens with worry of losing themselves entirely, falling into selflessness to be filled with, and to disappear entirely, into the forest itself. Warmth, heart beats, smells all work together to slow the pace of their breathing. Slow, sleepy, deep breaths fill with the scents of one another. The moment is all consuming, lasting always and never.
And then the moment is over. Time had won. The foreground once again became the trees, the ground, the skies and the birds. The freezing cold took them in its hands. The moment was lost and reality returned to them with all its harshness and exposure. They were forced to become at peace with the expirary of all things. Nothing lasts forever. This sadness now, that happiness then. It was all counting down. The negative should always remind us of the positive, and the positive, should always be appreciated beside the negative. Neither exists without the other. Sadness, happiness; foreground, background; love, and finally, loss. They would forget this fleeting experience, Our Prospective Lovers.

Kip Jordan