“There is Just One Moon”

 

It’s a shuffling of slow moving bodies - start - stop - start - stop - murmurings of multiple voices, the cries and shouts of children, all echoing in my head.  There is a hum in my ear and imbedded in it is a song.  It’s a song from my childhood.  How’s it go?

“It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears…”

A woman laughs too close to my ear while moving the opposite direction.  I feel like I want to cry as I look to find familiar faces but there are none.  The warmth of too many bodies in too close a space is stifling and I become aware of my own body odor.

We are descending down a ramp at a snail’s pace and the music continues quietly apace, willing us forward - down and around - down and around - until I hear the sloshing of water and the bumping of boats.  We are being herded onto them in groups of three.

There is someone directing me where I should go like a ferryman with a name tag that might be  “Sharon” though it could be “Charon”.  There is a lurching sensation and then we are launched into a dark river that enters a cavern, drawn on by the song.

“It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears…”

The boat thumps and bumps along.  I feel my limbs growing heavy, eyes closing, chin on chest until the music suddenly swells “It’s a small world…” and the world explodes into swirling colors and animated smiles coming at me from every direction.

They are children, or at least very small people, from different parts of the world in their distinctive cultural dress frolicking about amongst their native flora and fauna.  It is all highly stylized, over-the-top even, and some of it frankly racist.

But what a spectacle!  I feel my funk begin to lift though there is still a hallucinogenic aspect to what I am perceiving.  An irrational optimism is attempting to invade my awareness as I smile and sing along, “so much that we share, its time we’re aware…”

“It’s a small world after all…”

The hippo eyes me side-long, the massive elephant towers overhead, and I watch the cowboy kill the indian.  The boat floats on into a confusing collection of everyone, but everything is completely white.  The color has been drained and I realize they are all dead.

“There is just one moon…”