M.A. Internicola
Michael Internicola is the author of three novels, Kiss Me Baby, Sunflowers!, Chaz, and All Our Skies Are Blue and three collections of poetry, Malism, As Right As Rain, and The Darkest Place is Under a Streetlight. His poems, prose and fiction have appeared in numerous magazines. He lives in Key West, Florida.
PRAYER FOR WATER COLORS
When the giant sea horse appeared it sprinkled me with blue powder. I watched it's whole flight over thinking about what I was after. I looked in it eyes. I considered the mirror image I got of myself for a moment. I got a picture right away. I was a desperate man. I heard Emily's heartbeat all the way from the start. I looked at Emily. I touched her wrists and hands. This time she finished looking at me by appearing younger and more beautiful than ever. She had a long road of hair breathing out of her head. I let it run over my face and chest, peeking up her legs. Emily faded backwards into the movements of the ocean. She was almost a ghost I couldn't see anymore. Her prize was invisible. I floated north, south, east and west. I watched the exaggerated glow from above. The secrets that we shared were gone. The plants in the water looked plastic and the breathes that arrived from my mouth and out of the sea horse's mouth spoke rhythmically together with each other. I could hear this waltz-like harmony clearly. I grabbed it's tail and it swam slowly towards the top. Everything looked pregnant. I remember how it's tail held me tight. As we intermingled with the water I felt protected. I had so much more to think about now being older. As the minutes passed so quickly I could feel my mother's smile and my dad's great big heart. I could feel KC's family in Adelaide. I could see tiny explosions coming from nothing at all. My friends were all on my side. HASH was in Mongolia and doing well. Chicken Finger had his boys. JJ was sitting with the mrs. waving a simple hello. I heard a little little girl. I saw children sitting on my lap. They called me daddy and it made me cry. I saw the springer spaniels running apeshit in the fresh country air and the new writing house out by the lake. Everything was still blue. I smelled Paris. I smelled the wedding. I could easily understand why the butterflies were there. It was my grandpa and grandma giving back some glares. I saw all of this in the sea horse's eye. It's were all my secrets went blue. My ultimate happiness depended on the book. I couldn't waste my smiles, my big ideas, my balls, good looks and brains. I couldn't waste my guts or my trying to have talent. I allowed myself to have these things. These thoughts wouldn't let me be. I stared at my helpless hands. They were on trial, in the bedroom darkness, sifting through KC's wet hair while she laid on the bed just getting home from work. She had dreams under her pillow. She wouldn't be twenty-five forever. And they were on trial, in the many small rooms along the way, dancing with the pencil and trying to come up with something out of nothing. I had dreams too. I wouldn't be thirty-four forever.