Fireworks

Only crashing waves break the silence at this late hour, lapping against the shoreline like the distant voices of some ancient siren song. The cool waters wash over my feet and reclaim the trail of footprints that countless steps have carved through porcelain sand. What remnants of my path remain lead back to a raucous beach house where friends both old and new send breaths of rum-filled laughter high into the midnight void as the light of their souls mixes with that of innumerable stars and a crescent moon above. I stray from the familiar voices, further along the beach until at last I can hear their cheers no more and am left with only the boundless sea as my twilight companion. She is beautiful at this hour, her face awash in crimson and gold. The gentle breezes that dance across her shoreline playfully tease my golden locks like some adoring lover and make me long for the days when nightly I can relent to her temptations, for as now our trysts are but a fleeting indulgence. I long to stay here with her. I long to walk her shoreline as my cares and worries melt away like so many strangers' footprints left behind. She beckons me to remain forever in her arms, yet is gentle in her request, so very gentle and quieter still, her soft voice whispering into my ear in a million tiny droplets of seawater that crash onto the shore.

But the stillness is broken by a sudden explosion that drowns out her voice and paints the sky with colors even brighter and more spectacular than those of nature's palate. Reds and whites and blues fill the heavens, from the edge of one horizon to the other, each brilliant hue accompanied by explosions of unequal splendor that capture my attention with thunderous roars. My mouth hangs wide in awe as its edges curl into a smile seen only on the faces of youth, or in those whose youth has been momentarily recaptured. All the night sky is alive with the light of liberty...all is beautiful.

And I wonder...I wonder if the fireworks that my eyes behold are the same that paint the night skies over Boston Harbor, the same that fill your heart with the hope and anticipation of things still to come, just as your memory has filled mine. I reach out to hold your hand, momentarily forgetting that your touch lies somewhere far over the horizon, past where my voice can call or hand can reach, past even where the lights of the beautiful display above can travel. But it is those beautiful lights in the sky that I believe bring us together in this moment. As I stand on these white sand beaches in Panama City and gaze in childlike wonder at the exploding fireworks above, I think only of you. I think only of holding your hand and staring at the reflection of fireworks in your eyes while the ones within my heart are alighted simply by your touch. On the soft beaches of Panama City I stand this July 4th, wishing more than anything that you were here, and wondering if somewhere far over the horizon your gaze is cast skyward as you wish I was standing beside you on this magical night, holding your hand as we smile and surrender to a tender kiss.

I miss you. 

I miss you...and I just want to see you again.