Your sunset is not like my sunset, and I can’t explain my sunset to you no matter how much I describe it.  Words become feeble in such vain attempts.

Your eyes taste the universe differently than my eyes: they see the fragrances and smell the light from places I have never traveled.

As a star falls below the horizon, the smile I envision might to you be a frown, although both are expressions of the same magic drawn upon canvases made of separate thoughts.

Shadows grow long in my sunsets, silhouettes pulled toward darkness that turn even the smallest life into a giant, and true giants become leviathans unimagined.

The sky burns with day’s waning embers, a horizon filled with flames unseen, palpable art untouched yet touching.  Or perhaps you see a setting sun hidden by earth until its light becomes a memory of what was.

And reflected upon sky held by water becomes the hues of what is indescribable, for how can any life put words to that which only one at a time may know?

Even when I stood in awe of the vision, others passed by seeing that which I did not see, and not seeing that which I did see.

Finally the last sparks of daylight flitted into the heavens.  Behemoths made of white wings held the line betwixt that which was and that which was to come.  Others might say they simply prepared for nightfall…because they see things differently.

Your sunset is not like my sunset, and I can’t explain my sunset to you no matter how much I describe it.

— — — — — — — — — —

Photos:

[1] A female Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) foraging on shore.

[2] Three great egrets (Ardea alba) wading through the confluence as mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) swim in the background.

[3] A great blue heron (Ardea herodias) in silhouette as various ducks swim about.

[4] American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) line the sandbar at sunset while a plethora of waterfowl swim in the bay.

[5] A great egret (Ardea alba) and a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) stand amongst swimming mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos).

[6] Five great egrets (Ardea alba), a great blue heron (Ardea herodias), various ducks and gulls, American coots (Fulica americana) and an American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) facing sunset with urban Dallas towering in the background.

[7] American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) demarcating the safety of the bay against sunset.

[8] A great egret (Ardea alba) marching through the shallows with mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) swimming about and American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) nestled in the background.