Because We Have Always Been

I was crossing the boulevard when I saw through the gaps between the overhead railroads how beautiful the sky was. It was almost 5 in the afternoon and while wispy clouds quietly march under the blazing sun, it diffuses the sunlight leaving a soft haze filtering the blue horizon. The occasional wind caresses the skin. It trails large swathes of the epidermis, which would usually bear the brunt of the same fiery orb especially when my shift ends in the afternoon. Some people crossed the boulevard as well. Others are waiting for a jeep that would drop them elsewhere. The rest are just there to pass time or do business in the streets. And while everyone hurried on with their lives on a blissful dusky weekend, a desire to slow time became the impulse of the mind.

Thus I began to walk leisurely.

And tried to see things the way sentience would see life for the first time.

Earlier, the FX I boarded at Baclaran covered the stretch of Roxas Boulevard in minutes. On my left was the bay, and beyond was the mighty silhouette of a sleeping mountain lying in the heart of a peninsula. At Quiapo, I waded through a sea of people as mendicants, traders, and the faithful converges at the plaza fronting the great Basilica. Finally, as I exit a convenience store (with a Minute Maid in my hand) before taking the final crossing going home, I chanced upon a lad standing behind a lamppost who looked around as if waiting for someone. His bespectacled eyes scanned every person walking in his direction. Firmly holding his mobile phone, one could feel his anxiety. My hope is for the stranger he is waiting not to bail on him.

These scenes remind us how everything remains in place only for a moment. Like the azure sky and the staggering ball of light which the wistful clouds tried to hide. Soon, everything will be engulfed by the darkness. And while subjects under the sun pass over to the dominions of the night, the threshold becomes too fleeting, one cannot help but hold on to things that are bound to pass.

They say no sunsets are alike and its grandeur lies in how dramatic it casts a shadow over the living. Finding my place in the order of things, it's no wonder I have always been faithful to the dusk knowing that after embracing twilight, the things I hold dear will probably be mine no more.