The afternoon eats the sky Painting

Voices of the air But then the rare moment happens where, for no apparent reason the tiny voices of the air They sound above the sea and the wind The sea and the wind obey them and, singing, singing double notes double bass – consent to play a vibrant chord for tiny throats. The tiny throats that sing and rise into the light with beautiful ease and with a kind of sweet and magical surprise to be heard and known by them. By these tiny voices: the bee, the fly the blade that beats, the pod that bursts, the breeze on the tips of the waving grass, the strident and fast sound that the insect emits. The insect that hangs from a stem and a thread of water that slips between the mosses, the big stones and her tiara all this infinite and silent song. This silent song, so dim and rare that the heart must not beat nor the swift blood flow to hear the myriad voices of the air Author: Katherine Mansfield