The Lotus Eaters and the Cloud People

by Anna Ruiz

In the olden days, when stories were handed down
from mouth to ear and ear to mouth
there lived the Lotus Eaters,
they were a proud people, living off the land
in harmony with the Azure Sea and Sepia Earth,
the Rainbow Sky,
and this is the way it was
for a very very long time
to the north, even longer than before
the Cloud People lived
shrouded in mystery,
they were only spoken about in hushed tones,
for they were rarely seen
for a mist always seemed to precede
their arrival, no one knew how high into
the clouds they lived, no one knew
if they lived in fear
for the Lotus Eaters
were fearful of heights,
and so one day,
and no one knows how it happened so,
no one knows why,
a small girl-child ate of the Lotus
of Special Powers, no one knew that on the
same day, a child of the Clouds walked through his own
mist and from that day forth
the Lotus Eaters and the Cloud People
met in the
Festival of Lights,
their days were numbered and so the saga ended
and even into this day, this very same day,
nothing remains but the Lotus Fower
in the sea of its birth.