The War in the Sky

I watch the lightening explode the sky and scatter shadows and light with a shattering clap of growls and rumbling clouds.

Whatever did the first people think that this magnificent spectacle meant?

The sky thunders and the soles of my feet feel the earth’s reply.

How did they explain it? What stories did they tell?

In the beginning, before water fell from the sky and a person could wonder why, Day and Night shared Earth. Together, Day and Night followed the seasons around the land and danced with all the stars. They were happy and knew only joy. They journeyed to every distant land and visited the furthest star. But Earth was their home, and it was Earth that they loved. Indeed, the only love greater than that which each had for the other, was the loved that they shared for Earth.

However, Earth most loved another, a smaller being, a greater love: the First People.

Day and Night knew they had to love the First People too. And they did precisely that. For the making of many mountains and seas, the First People shared Earth with Day and Night. There was harmony between sky and land, sun and moon, darkness and daylight, people and plants.

But the nature of love is not entirely known, and none can see into another’s heart.

The First People loved Day in a special way. They played and worked and laughed by Day. Night grew jealous. The First People did not blush by Night. They did not gather blossoms, or invite Night to lie on the grass. Night grew very jealous indeed.

But what Night never noticed, Day did see: the First People had a particular love for Night, and Day grew jealous. For the First People showed their scars to Night; they whispered sweet secrets and sang of moonlight. The First People were, to Night, most nakedly true – but Night never knew.

And so, Day grew jealous of Night; Night grew jealous of Day, and the First People loved both in special ways.

So great was their jealousy, so small their sight, that Day and Night began to fight.