Illustrations of an Elephant Hawk Moth &  Broad Bordered Bee Hawk Moth. 

I’ve spent the last two months living in a tree house surrounded by jungle and fireflies and an orchestra of frogs singing crooked lullaby’s to the skies to send the thunderstorms to sleep. I lived with a goddess who wore a dress made of forests and with eyes so deep like worlds within world within worlds. And whose name reminded me of trinkets and raindrops. A hummingbird dances around her heart when she smiles.
We laughed. We cried. We had morning tea together and turned the pan black by accidentally burning the rice in our cupboard-like kitchen that we shared with a friendly gecko.

I managed to convince new friends on the yoga teacher training that I am indeed a mermaid and that my sea coloured dress morphs into a tail at night and that the fireflies following me turn into silverfish that swim in the air and circle around me when the moon is fat. When I sleep I am taken back to the ocean by a humpback whale who navigates the way with a lantern and her brass compass.

One night I met a pirate. He was busy building his universe from fragments and scrap he’d collected in his backyard. But he was really a god of the ocean in disguise! For he knows everything there is to know about the tides, the climate and all life under the briny deep. And his name is as ancient as the wild wild seas and sounds like the waves embracing the shoreline on a crisp autumnal day.
His magical fish hook that controls the weather is kept on a shelf brimming with shells and fish bones! When he smiles his mischievous smile a swordfish darts passed him to play with my humpback whale and whispers “Let’s go on an adventure!”
In his pirate ship home I eat chocolate cake for breakfast and cast spells in the living room over a cup of spicy Chai, listening to the magpie siren song and I day dream of roses, stars, waterfalls and empires of grass in far away places and of hummingbird moths rising with the dawn.

I created this story a few days ago after spending the afternoon leisurley day dreaming of all that’s happened so far on my traveling adventure. In my daily spiritual practice I see magic all around like a child would do. As adults we grow up and forget the magic but it is always there, trying to remind us how beautiful our world actually is. I intend on creating more short stories like this to include in my illustrated prose poetry and short story collection that I hope to publish one day. I hope you enjoyed reading it? This is a sample of my wrting style- whimsical yet down to earth.

© Katie Ness/Sunflowerteeth 2019