Lost Song

by Ray Evans

I was the first, and I am the last. So listen to me.

I was born to a great sound, a Word that was so powerful and inconceivable that it brought forth a great blast and blinding light that reached out into the blackness, creating space as it went. The Word is still ringing in my ears.

At first I had no awareness of myself, but as my brothers and sisters, born of the same sound and the same light, began to dance together, they formed me. I was the last, as again I am the last.

Consciousness of my own being was slow to come. My being was so spread out in the ever-increasing expanse that I had no sense of myself. Gradually, however, I began to feel the flow of my own life. I traveled through time and space, and kissed everything that existed. With my kiss came life, and with it, movement.

At first I was content with living in the wildness and profusion of matter. There was nowhere I did not reach or travel, blessing all as I followed my paths. The routes I followed were uncharted, but everywhere I went I seemed to bring life. Things bloomed around me in cascades of green, red like the winged cardinals of late, and yellow like the sun that finally blessed me with the power to give up my secret.

Memory is my secret. I carry the memory of every event that I have touched and that has touched me. I can retell these memories to all I meet, which in turn gifts me with new memories to spread across the earth.

I have been worshipped and feared, which is but right. Then I began to ail. I knew I was being poisoned by the very creatures I had helped create. They did it unknowingly, but they did it nonetheless.

There are still those who love me. I see them standing nearby as I pass them on the endless journey that my nature dictates. Their love feeds me, and I carry that love with me, in my cells, in my memory. It feeds me, but it is not enough. The others have won, but only for now.

You will all pass, and I shall sleep. When I awaken again, and I shall, your spirits and those of others like you will again give me, with love, memories to carry across the planet. They will call me many things; eau, agua, aqua, or water. I will begin the eternal journey again.