Hydra at Dawn

 

A cruise-ship is a crib that lulls its occupants to sleep rocking them gently and then like a magic carpet carries them away to a new location during the night to awaken and be amazed by its beauty.

I awoke from a deep sea-slumber staring at the sleepy island of Hydra with the sun rising over its peaks. The town was nestled between three mountains and the houses decreased in number as the elevation increased. There were no cars allowed on the island; only donkeys or feet were the means of transportation in this pristine place. The town sat around the perimeter of the harbor in which small boats were docked. I was blinded by a dazzling display of sunlight-diamonds reflecting off the calm waves of the harbor, stretching out in a triangular pattern and engulfing the hull of the ship a quarter mile from shore. The lights were ever changing polished gems, dissipating and reappearing in a new pattern and location. My imagination wandered, refreshed by sleep, wondering if the lights were simply reflected light or possibly mermaids entranced by the island’s beauty, or maybe even sirens attempting to lull ships near the rocks. I had not packed wax into my suitcase, so I did without it. Maybe the lights were the souls of Greeks from ancient history swimming up from the afterlife to look again at their beautiful land and remember their exploits and accomplishments reminiscing of when they possessed a corporeal body to walk the land and breathe in the crisp clean air. Homer and Socrates, Euripides and Aeschylus, Plato and Aristotle, Herodotus and Thucydides, Clea and Aspasia, Pythagoras and Pericles all numbered among the throng in my vision, remembering and revisiting the past before returning this vista to the living.

 

Jim -Sept 23’