Standing Under a Static Sky

Standing Under a Static Sky

I’m standing under a static sky

As the world whirls beneath me.

It may appear as if I’m standing still

But I assure you I am not.

I tried sitting for a time, lying back and watching the clouds speed away.

But I couldn’t reach, could not touch them, lying on the ground.

The whirling was so fast. Standing was hard.

Harder than sitting, harder than lying down. Harder than just getting pulled along, the world spinning beneath me.

And everyone else is whirling along with me.

Many of them sit, as well, many lay down, and get pulled along as I struggle to stand alongside them.

And we are still all pulled along, and still move together.

From afar, you wouldn’t see anything different between us, we all whirl together.

Except, perhaps, an occasional arm outstretched towards the sky,

As I dream of the feel of clouds streaming through my fingers.

There are some who grew tired of lying, or sitting, watching the clouds stream past while the world moved them along.

Others who appreciated the beauty of the sun falling behind the hills.

And who wondered.

Where are we going?

Why are we lying here, whirling away?

And so they stood.

And then walked.

You can tell them apart from afar, moving, walking their own way.

Sometimes running.

As the world still whirls them, they move with it, against it, and parallel to it.

Riding the movement but incorporating their own.

Around me some who sit lay back down in mockery.

Others grumble.

But still, those few walk.

And now I walk too.

Heading over the hill.

Chasing the clouds.

Maybe I can touch them.

About a month and a half ago, I stopped along RT32 in Mansfield, CT near sunset as a front passed through near sunset, and watched the clouds in the sky racing past. As I stood there in the moment, in awe of nature, a transient idea went through my head, thinking about if instead of the clouds moving, I was moving and they were actually standing still.

Pondering the idea for a few minutes, first the phrase “Standing Under a Static Sky” and then nearly the entire piece came to me almost fully formed. I scribbled in my moleskine as fast as I could and hoped I would later be able to read my own handwriting!

Thank you for reading.

– Jeremy