the shape of sound

He watched the sounds dance across the water as they gently kissed its mirrored surface ever so slightly, not even causing a ripple and in the same instant, lifting off to then ripple through the air until reaching his ears. One after another and sometimes multiple sounds at once arrived to his ears sounding so right to him, repeating the same dance over and over that he was watching them perform so elegantly. The beauty of the sounds and connection between what he saw and heard placed him in a space where he simply fell into an order unlike he ever experienced before and all he could think to himself to describe the sensation was that everything felt so right to him unlike ever before. He relaxed and his body relaxed and his muscled and bones relaxed and his mind relaxed letting go of so much he didn’t need to hold onto. The more he relaxed, the more he observed the dance of the sounds across the water and the sounds that reached his ears and he began to further observe the nature of this phenomena whereby together this interaction between what he saw and heard created a wholeness that was as real as any shape he ever witnessed yet as intangible as anything that never existed. This dichotomy inspired a desire within him to perceive this intangible shape of sound between his hands so that he might grasp both the feeling and meaning, so that he might further experience the sensation to where he felt he was being led so that he might understand a new mystery he hadn’t known before. He reached his hands outward imagining he could hold the sounds like he would hold a ball or sphere of some kind. Just as he felt his hands were in the right place he could almost sense the shape that he was trying to feel but he could also sense that it was slipping between his fingers and wasn’t quite there as he moved his hands closer together and then drawing them apart trying to find where and what the shape was. Anticipation built and seemed to gather on the tips of his fingers as he felt so close to grasping the shape but then bordering on frustration when he couldn’t feel what he thought he should be able feel. Before he actually became frustrated, he broke his hands from their place, bending his elbow and motioning his arm so that he could run one of his hands through his hair. He didn’t realize that as his fingers moved towards him, they traced invisible canals through the air in which the sounds fell, following along the paths of his fingers eventually running through his hair just like his fingers, between strands and along the skin of his scalp. The sounds awakened new sensations that at first he didn’t realize were caused by the sounds but as his scalp and hair could feel a sense of the shape he was seeking to feel he connected the feeling to the sounds he was observing. He ran his fingers through his hair again causing additional canals to open and they also filled with sounds multiplying the sounds that began to entangle like tendrils in his hair and follow every motion of his fingers. Everywhere his hands moved, the sounds would follow, moment by moment continually increasing the paths for the sound to follow, touching him and connecting him to their elusive shape. An intensity began to build and he touched his hands to his chest and the sounds followed; moving his hand up along his neck and jaw and the sounds followed; touching his face and then moving his hand over his mouth, pressed against his lips in an astonishment at what he was feeling and the sounds followed. He tried again to grasp what it was that he was feeling, moving his hands to try and hold the shape he thought the sounds embodied as the sounds began to encircle him. Concentrating on the shape, his lips parted and his mouth opened unknowingly inviting the sounds inside him. Dancing across his body and through his hair until they kissed his lips much like they kissed the water, with barely a disturbance, and then making their way in his mouth and down his throat further and further in. He felt something familiar stir within him, as if he might locate the shape inside of himself. He inhaled taking more sounds in. He swallowed, taking them further within himself and then exhaled breathing them out through his mouth and nostrils. The sounds were then coursing from the water in a steady stream towards him, wrapping around his body like thousands of rivers all converging over his mouth and flowing inside of him, filling him until he was wholly filled with the sounds and then they flowed out of him, a pattern repeating over and over until he was barely distinguishable from mass of sounds that seemed to be burying him. As he filled more and more with the sounds, they overflowed until they began to come out of his mouth and nostrils and eyes and carried with them his sight as far as the sounds would travel. He was able to see what the sounds could see and he felt the sounds barely kiss the surface of the mirrored water so gently as not to even cause a ripple and it was the most perfect moment he ever experienced, watching the sounds dance across the water until they danced across his skin and filled him, then carrying his sight to also dance across the water together with the sound. His hands outstretched further, grasping at the shape and it was in that moment he felt it but it was more than he anticipated feeling and it was larger than his hands could hold, the weight of the shape overflowing into his arms and like a wave they overcame his body and his whole body felt and discerned the shape and the shape was beyond what his body could sense but his sight extended his senses allowing him to comprehend the nature of the shape and he felt so satisfied at its understanding. In moments upon such understanding the sounds began to recede and withdrew themselves from within him and his finite sight was restored and his senses again confined within the skin of his body and they no longer danced across the water. He could no longer feel the shape of sound but it was imprinted upon his mind and whether he could feel it or not, he knew the shape of sound forever after.