A Cool Drink of Water...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
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Writing after an absence is akin to that delicious sweet and slippery taste of water when you come inside after running around on a hot day.

 The house interior seems much dimmer to eyes that have been out in the bright sun--- shadows dance before you as you lick your dry, lips with your sticky sandpaper tongue.

The sink.

In the kitchen it is cooler; looking out the window where the sunshine gleams off of glass and soaks into bricks and mud and wood… the green grass warm on the blades, but cool underneath…

The sink whispers.

Silver and dully glinting in the kitchen where no lights are on, you feel degrees cooler with every step closer to it.

Reaching into the cabinet above, your fingers wrap around the cool solidified liquid of a glass.

Your body so hot that your fingers steam around their edges, causing condensation on a vessel not yet filled with water.

You reach for the knob of cold. The silvery rushing sound of the water crawling and slipping through the pipes is faint and then grows louder as the sparkling, white rush comes forth from the faucet.

You hold the glass heavily under the flow; feeling it's clear, cold volume fill up.

Your eyes almost unfocused, you stare at the glass in the shade of the room-- watching the bubbles from the rapids crashing on the sides disappear.

Breathing out in a great sigh, you lift the impeccably smooth, cool edge to your cracked lips.

Sweet.

Sweet and juicy and intensely cooling.

You try not to gulp, but it's impossible.

You've  downed the glass so quickly, it almost hurts to swallow the chugs.

More.

Must have more.

You drink until the water dribbles down the sides of your mouth,
until the splashes on the sides of the glass hit the chest of your shirt,
until you open your eyes light-headed with the sudden rush of hydration,
until your pounding head and heart cause you to gasp for breath,
until your belly is sloshing with the cold heavy liquid,
until you feel dizzy,
until you see spots in front of your eyes because you ingested it so quickly and your body is suddenly so tired and completely relaxed that you must sit or lay down to rest.

THAT is what it's like to write after an absence….