Moments
©1993 Tim St.Clair
It was a storybook morning. Probing tendrils of gold pealed across a pale expanse of blue sky, a never ending dome of immense nothing. The air was almost still, a zephyr breath tossed a single rust-red leaf gaily over an tract of dew-soaked grass. A tiny bird hopped along the ground, each insect within reach was carelessly devoured by the probing beak.
A spectrum of colour gleamed as an individual drop of moisture slowly rolled along the sharp leaf drooping from a bright flower. The droplet fell noiselessly into the abyss so far below.
Across the landscape of tree-mottled acres, somewhere out on the distant horizon, an enormous range of jagged grey-green peaks rose from the undulating scenery below- a shadow rising from the cool ground. A long, straight gravel road sliced through the countryside- a scar tearing the flesh of the land, bare earth exposed. Flirting across the western horizon amongst the receding night, a whish of puffy cloud was pushed by the unseen autumn winds.
A golden leaf fell from a tall tree to join the plethora amidst the grassy earth.
The warming sun burst forth in a spray of gold-rich light, its tentacles enwrapping each and every dying lifeform across the land. Against the oncoming winter, the dazzling radiance of colour glazed the scenery. Pink and yellow flowers under the dim forest of twisted and knotting branches that seemed to engross the multicoloured trees. A single grey-trunked tree, dead, reached imploringly for the unreachable and ever-present blue, so very far above.
-A moment of absolute silence-
Then the birds. Trills and caws mingling through the dense scrublands and across the open plains of green grass. A yellow breasted bird teased the ground, hoping for the tasty reward. Elsewhere, a tiny ant made a slow path towards its home, its noiseless feet stampeding the ground, occasionally turning a single grain of the rich-brown soil.
The roar ceased as quickly as it had begun. The car had sped from nowhere to be again lost in its own world of carbon-black smoke and loam dirt. Beside the road, a battered body of the small bird lay, its meal, still alive and almost devoured, yet able to escape the newly dead body. Two fresh car tracks led of down the harsh and unforgiving road.

Like diamonds across a black satin sheet, the uncountable stars gazed down on a still land from their place in the heavens. A cresent moon hung low over the black horizon, its cool light infiltrating the sombre night. The autumn chill of a lonely night gradually felt its way into the narrow crevices of the darkened landscape, icy fingers poking into the warm and secluded nests and homes of sleeping critters. A whisp of white, the greyish own lifted from a perch and swooped to the cold earth. Its large night-eyes had again picked out another meal. The field-mouse no more, the silent bird dissapeared into the night.
Like two tiny orbs the animals eyes gleamed through the darkness. Slowly, the furry creature made its way across the silent road. Not a sound crossed the darkened meadow as the wild cat prowled through undergrowth.
The sound wavered across the unseen distance, long before the two white eyes gleamed through the darkness. The furious roar and bright lights startled the hissing cat standing defensively in the centre of the road even as the immense body bore down carelessly.
The scenery seemed somehow different under the overcast sky. A misting drizzle washed the dust from  the metallic hull of a dusty car, carefully spread around the immense butt of a broken grey-leafed tree. Inside the crushed shell, deep in the slightly smoking remains of the blue vehicle, the body lay cold, scarlet robes of blood decorating random patches of the female flesh. 
Perhaps it was the blue lights whirling or the presence of sirens and multitudes of humans that caused the once rich-in-life scrublands to grow silent. Maybe it was the washing rain, a steady flow of the worlds’ life-blood that freely poured down in through dim forest and cold soil.
A mosquito landed of a spiny leaf of dead grass and gazed strangely at the scene. Suddenly, a huge globule of falling water bounced along the leaf towards the defenseless insect. With absolute skill, the tiny creature manouvered on silent wings away from the colourless liquid, off into the wet distance.
Before long, the bare earth had once again been exposed to the warming sunlight. As immense clouds parted and illuminating yellow glared through, the dark soil where the car had been just a short time before glistened. New life was waiting just below the dark surface, holding for the moment to burst through to the calm world above.