Luminescence

First, we thought that there are three endangered species approaching us, but then we recognized that it was an entire colony of endangered species. An entire field of something which seemed endangered. In fact, we could not really detect what was coming towards us. Keeping an eye on them started as a strange kind of mission, we agreed to.
It was a secret commitment. This is how it started.

But probably it started way before.

In the beginning, which was not the beginning, it seemed to us, that all endangered species were similar. We, clumsy as we are, kept trying to touch them, to approach them. We fumbled around in our dyslexic way and finally discovered that they were very different from each other. Somehow we knew that already. We were haunted by it.

Actually, it was quite difficult to say where one species began and the other end.
They had these fleeting boundaries, as if they were connected to each other.

But one of them could become part of all kind of different things. It mysteriously mixed different substances together and made them appear as one. It transformed things. It was able to isolate human beings and things from each other. It was tasteless, nearly weightless, opaque and at the same time reflecting most unusual wavelengths of light. It could be molded in any shape and had a big intensity at the same time. It appeared as a mysterious silver shimmer.

„Approaching“ is not really the right word of how we felt this one species happening. It did not approach us at all. All of a sudden it was there. It was an experience. It was a different perspective. Something shifted. The truth is we spent a lot of energy to make it happen. We discovered that it was everywhere. Already for a long time. But we were keen to the idea, that it had dropped down suddenly from somewhere. Like from outer-space or something; – what a strange thing to think. This colony was completely earth bound. We were surrounded by it daily. Shiny obstacles to connect with the world around. A flickering, sparkling trace of something. We just wanted to follow that. Following these promises of luminescence.

Yes, for a long time we enjoyed being close to this species, we enjoyed being a part of it. It was a kind of graceful trophy. We felt elevated by it. Only very slowly we got a sense that we ourselves were profoundly depending on this something. We could not live without it anymore. How can you be completely depended on something which you did not recognize, we started to wonder. Maybe we were already part of this colony for a long time, without realizing it. We, an endangered species ourselves part of endangered seeds? What kind of seeds? We did not know.

Does this mean that we ourselves were part of this colony heading somewhere. Or were we just growing and thereby transforming, mutating. I guess so. We tried not to think about it too much. But it entered our dreams, strange elements entered our dreams, we could not even find words for. We felt surrounded from an inside out. (S.H.)