pages Midnight Dancer

by Agustin Eastwood De Mello

Published in Issue No. 13 ~ June, 1998

At midnight the guitarist began playing music in a room in his home that had been cleared of any furniture so that the acoustical environment would be ideal. The lights in the room had not been turned on.

After performing the music for a short while, the guitarist was startled by a sound at the window overlooking the garden where a fruit tree’s branches scraped against the glass. The guitarist stopped playing and opened the window wide, but he didn’t see anything unusual. He returned to his chair and resumed playing his guitar leaving the window open. Suddenly he saw a young lady entering the window. She was wearing a transparent white dress and her face was very lovely.

The lady motioned for the guitarist to keep playing as she danced to his music. The guitarist felt that he was in the presence of a supernatural entity and he continued to play while the lady performed a very sensual dance. The dancer performed very erotic movements and as she danced, the guitarist heard the sound of what appeared to be rain. Moonlight from a full moon illuminated the dancer’s voluptuous body.

For hours the dancer continued moving – almost floating around the room until the guitarist, exhausted, fell asleep. When the guitarist awoke at dawn he found that the dancer had vanished.

Looking outside the window, the guitarist noticed that the fruit tree had blossoms on it and there was a wonderful fragrance everywhere as morning doves sang eloquently in the tree.

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Agustin (Austin) Eastwood De Mello lives in Santa Cruz, California. He is a professional writer and author of several books. His poetry has been published in many literary publications including Frogpond, Japanophile, Orphic Lute, Wind, Western Poetry, Florida Arts, and El Coqui. He was an instructor of guitar and writing at the University of California at Santa Barbara. De Mello has performed in concerts with Marlene Dietrich and Miles Davis. He has also produced three LP records and an audiotape of his Flamenco guitar selections.