Choking on salt water

I can trace the clouds with the tip of my finger.
You see, Time does not exist in my world right now.
As the clouds pass, ever so slowly, time is falling backwards.

Want to know how?
It is because I am traveling towards sunshine.
Sunshine, in fact, is not capable of leaving you if you are traveling 9,000 miles an hour towards it.

According to my specific calculations, I am, in theory, Sunshine.

Did you hear that? I am sunshine. 

It is tucked away into the ducts of my eyes, the scalp of my head, fitted into my ears; between my toes, underneath the turquoise of my chipped nail polish.

It is the first thing I see when I wake, and falls somewhere between my eyelids and the place where I dream every night.

I am the earth beneath a dirty old flip flop. I am the heat of friction rubbing against my bare skin and a wooden board, created to ride the ocean. I am tangled hair, tossed with sea salt and hotel-mint. I am the butter melted on a piece warm, thick, banana bread sold at a local shack, the cool ice finely shaved into a brightly colored paper cup. I am the chill that runs right down your spine when your skin is a deep shade of burnt maroon. I am a planted foot at the base of that board. I am a real smile, one that starts within, and reaches the brown of your eyes, before it ever intends to show its warmth near the mouth. I am all adrenaline as the energy of the water propels from behind.  I am the moment of silence, of stillness as a foot is planted at the base of the board and that awfully rare, feeling of excitement and accomplishment rushes into my throat and fills every inch of my unsettled stomach as I soar for my first time across a wave.I am the muted ache of the bones in the lower back as one sits huddled over the last few pages of a captivating distopian novel. I am the coloring of the fish, as the beady black eye scans the blue of my shaking flipper. I am a good nights sleep.

I am a hole deep within being filled with something that could be described to be very much what the English call; sunshine.

Today, I claim sunshine. 

Just for today, it's mine.

Oh, and Katherine Ellis?
Happy, happy, happy Birthday.
You are inspiring, and deserve every good thing that comes to you in this life.