Red Eyes

[Leafstorm]

Red Eyes I

I am in a tiny hotel room in Casablanca, or Cairo, waiting for a desert sandstorm to abate so that I can begin my journey: a solo trek across the Sahara on a motortrike with two large tires in the rear and a short ski up front. I will be riding in an air-conditioned cockpit with tinted plexiglas, and I will pull a small trailer containing water, food, clothing, a tent, some books, and several plants, which I will plant in the desert.

A woman with red eyes approaches me and hands me an egg timer with no sand in it. She tells me I must fill it for her with only sand from the wind. There is no point in arguing with those red eyes, so I step out into the raging storm and hold up the egg timer. But it is I who am filled with the whirling time.


Red Eyes II

I awake to a day that is night. I am in a frail tent in the middle of a desert. A sandstorm is raging – howling wind, swirling black sand.

I remember my thornapples and nightshades. I rush outside and begin to cover them, as well as the sneezeweed, with cones of newspaper. I worry that the black newsprint will damage their delicate leaves, or taint their dreams.

A woman emerges from the maelstrom. She is dressed in black veils, except for her eyes – they are luminescent red. She begins to peal off veils and cover my nightshade and opium poppy. She caresses my choke weed, she kisses my bloodroot. She keeps taking off veils, as I keep discovering more and more plants that need covering.

The last veils come off and reveal an amorphous form of swirling black sand, resembling a naked woman, but also a mushroom: the deadly amanita, the death angel, with her deadly red eyes glowing.

I want to jump into her whirlwind. I jump.

But her sand body flies away with the sandstorm. Her red eyes recede from me, into the night of the storm. Following her is like trying to grasp the black wind.

I turn to my plants and lift the black veils. They have all become giant red scorpions. They scuttle off into the dry chaos – after the vanishing red eyes.

[Dark Shadows]

That's pretty heavy stuff, did you dream it? Who/what does the woman with the red eyes represent? It kind of reminds me of Pink Floyd's, The Wall "Dirty Woman" where in the video portion the woman (a flower) swallows up the man.

Red Eyes I

I am in a tiny hotel room in Casablanca, or Cairo, waiting for a desert sandstorm to abate so that I can begin my journey: a solo trek across the Sahara on a motortrike with two large tires in the rear and a short ski up front. I will be riding in an air-conditioned cockpit with tinted plexiglas, and I will pull a small trailer containing water, food, clothing, a tent, some books, and several plants, which I will plant in the desert.

A woman with red eyes approaches me and hands me an egg timer with no sand in it. She tells me I must fill it for her with only sand from the wind. There is no point in arguing with those red eyes, so I step out into the raging storm and hold up the egg timer. But it is I who am filled with the whirling time.


Red Eyes II

I awake to a day that is night. I am in a frail tent in the middle of a desert. A sandstorm is raging – howling wind, swirling black sand.

I remember my thornapples and nightshades. I rush outside and begin to cover them, as well as the sneezeweed, with cones of newspaper. I worry that the black newsprint will damage their delicate leaves, or taint their dreams.

A woman emerges from the maelstrom. She is dressed in black veils, except for her eyes – they are luminescent red. She begins to peal off veils and cover my nightshade and opium poppy. She caresses my choke weed, she kisses my bloodroot. She keeps taking off veils, as I keep discovering more and more plants that need covering.

The last veils come off and reveal an amorphous form of swirling black sand, resembling a naked woman, but also a mushroom: the deadly amanita, the death angel, with her deadly red eyes glowing.

I want to jump into her whirlwind. I jump.

But her sand body flies away with the sandstorm. Her red eyes recede from me, into the night of the storm. Following her is like trying to grasp the black wind.

I turn to my plants and lift the black veils. They have all become giant red scorpions. They scuttle off into the dry chaos – after the vanishing red eyes.

[Leafstorm]

That's pretty heavy stuff, did you dream it? Who/what does the woman with the red eyes represent? It kind of reminds me of Pink Floyd's, The Wall "Dirty Woman" where in the video portion the woman (a flower) swallows up the man.

Hi Dark Shadows. Yes, this piece originated as a dream, as does much of my writing. I'm not sure I can say what the red-eyed woman represents - perhaps the ominous quality of time, or perhaps more personal fears...
Thanks for mentioning the Pink Floyd video. I'll check that out.
Leafstorm