legal enlightenment

Legal enlightenment

The blue smoke of salvia danced with the candlelight from his nostrils to the back alleys of his ears. A smile of a man voyaging into a new world set on his unshaven face. He barely passed me the pipe. I felt like a child nearing the fairground, hearing the laughter and screams, smelling the sweet smell of candy floss over the salty sea air.
I packed the cone to the brim and aimed the lighter to the pipe. The salvia crackled as the burning candle flickered to create a strong cave like shadow over the room. My Jewish friend was now lying in the fetal position mesmerizes by the burning wick. The smoke dribbled from my mouth and I coughed as the last wisp of smoke left my throat. I clenched my eyes shut and had to crouch to recover. I opened my eyes to a new room which was vibrating like an airplane engine in those anxious moments before take off, when the element of choice has gone from your journey..
I sunk into my mattress and there came the most beautiful of moments. I ceased to be only of this body, I could feel the flowing energy of all things. There was no separation of self and matter. I didn’t exist separately from the mug on my desk or the plants on my windowsill, we were one energy flowing. I’d always found it hard to grasp the Buddhist concept of non-self, but here ‘I’ was experiencing myself as a part of a collective consciousness . I froze the experience into the mind to bring the thought back after the salvia had faded.
I sat upright turning my head like a hungry mere cat looking for fruit to steal. The substance of all I could see lost it’s solidity, the rigidity of my existence was gone. Colors changing , dimensions lost. The thought of my friend being peeled out of my sight like a discarded apple sticker felt possible. My true fragility in this world was realized , this did not conjure terrible fear but a feeling of elated happiness of the soul, knowing that we are all exploding like fireworks that will leave no sign of their bright moment of being.
Time passed as I pondered on the new revelations in my life, I joined my friend in the vigil to the candle. Truth traveled from the bright rays of the flame to the dark abyss of my pupils filling them with golden droplets of wisdom. When I took my gaze from the flame what I knew before as reality started to warm into me like the taste of port on a frosty night. We started talking to talk of our experiences. Words at the time felt like a poor representation of what had happened, we questioned down and our eyes locked and said what was needed .
The urge to see the green earth came over me like an itch. Nothing was said to my departure , I was given a thankful smile as I turned to close the door. I stepped outside to the warm air. Nature was celebrating the last rays of summer warmth with a song of gratitude and despair. The birds were singing goodbyes to branches they had sung their sunshine songs to, the horizon wore the sun as a hat for special occasions ,this one a solemn orange color it had picked for the sad occasion of saying goodbye to an old friend. I looked up to see the last wave of summer and salvia on the horizon as they walked in the distance hand in hand from my sight.