Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty

What do you think is the reason people watch their loved ones sleep? I had my own reasons.

When I woke up in the middle of one night, there was she right beside me sleeping peacefully. The beaming light of the silver moon from the heavens above came in through the window, and fell upon her body as if she were wearing it head to toe. Time stood still as I checked every inch of her face. The moles on her face formed an equilateral triangle above her left eye. Her eyelids had a crease, and were closed against the moonlight. She was breathing softly and rhythmically- her breasts rising and falling with each intake of air. Her ebony black hair danced around her head on the beats of the cool breeze which caressed her gently like a painter’s stroke. She had eyes of opals under her eyelids, and a body of a nymphet- a heart of a child and wit of a fool.

Night bugs outside sang songs of the deepest of the woods. She looked so innocent and vulnerable in her sleep. It was one time I could really observe her without an explanation or reason. And there was something very peaceful about watching her sleep, like a stolen moment one can enjoy. My heart began to warm up a little. I reached up to her face and planted a gentle kiss on her temple, and watched her subconscious react to it.

Then the REM kicked in. I so wanted to learn the calm with which she was aiming at her dreams. I wished she was having a beautiful dream. I wished she dreamed of the green meadows and the mountains, of the lake which glimmered under the rays of the mellow sun, like it had been undisturbed for years. I wished it. I wished it all. 

I ran my finger under her dainty nose. I could feel the warm air she was breathing out. It sent monotonous ripples through my heart. I could see her body was at utter peace and rest-every muscle in her body totally relaxed. Time stood still yet again as I stared at her for like minutes, fixing my gaze right into her face that one could easily assume me hypnotized. She wasn’t wearing any forced expression or any mask at all. She was just her. Innocent, primal and honest- such was the depth of her oblivion. There was something innately attractive watching her sleep in that moment of tranquility.

I couldn’t find a single flaw in her as I continued to watch her because every flaw would start turning beautiful right in front of my eyes. Finding faults is for those with tired minds, and I was certainly not one of them. I got up from the bed, and walked up to the window. I smiled at the moon floating in the calm summer starlit sky, and she smiled back. The craters on her skin started fading away. I kept smiling all the way through. I turned my head to watch my love. The breeze was gone by then, and her hair was a mess in a beautiful way.

If she had a habit of speaking in her sleep, I could listen to her all night long, no matter what she was telling. Madness has overcome me. The longer I climb, the deeper I fall into her captivity. I went back to her, and held her hands in mine softly. Her fingernails were varnished. The polish on them reflected the moonlight back to where they came from. I could feel her pulse which happened to sync with my own heartbeat.

I closed my eyes for a while and took a deep breath. The love of my life was right in front of me, and I had a sad realization that she wouldn’t last forever. Neither would I. Nothing would. My heart felt heavy, and there was a lump in my throat at the thought of this. But love is an endless ocean. It has no beginning and no ending. It transcends the boundaries of life and death. Somebody has said our death is our wedding with the eternity. I told her even if I burn away, my ashes will still be alive, and they will come dancing in a thousand new faces in her memories. I told her all but she wouldn’t hear it in her sleep. She wouldn’t see the compassion flowing continually onto her from the deepest bottoms of my heart.

I opened my eyes to look at her again. This time she seemed very fragile-like a snowflake falling from the sky, like a dew drop on a leaf at the dawn, fragile like flower blossoms in the early spring, like a water bubble floating in the void. One touch is all it takes. It broke me apart. I almost felt like crying. I held her hands again, and read a poem I’d written for her from my memory.

From both your eyes, from your nostrils
From both your ears and from your chin
Forth from your heart and mind
And from your tongue
I’ll drive your malady away

From what is voided within,
From strands of your hair
And from tip of your nails,
From all yourself top to toe
I’ll drive your malady away

Ill thoughts and nightmares
Will no longer visit you
Even in the darkest of nights
Sleep with the silver moon
Rise with the burning sun

Now spread your wings
And fly with the birds
Under the bluest of the skies
Croon in the early mornings
And take a man’s blues away

Flow with the rivers
And gather the streams
Down from the hills and mountains
Let flowery grass spring up
Let there be lakes with lotus blooms

Drift with the clouds
And the blowing wind
Without a destination
To the faraway deserts
And fill up the oasis

She slept like a baby the whole night through, completely oblivious to all my words and all my actions. I wanted to join her in her peaceful sleep. I wanted to go blind and dream. So I lay by her side. Seeing and holding the lockets of her hair, my face became all eyes, and eyes all hands, before I fell asleep.