Golden Dust: Golden Dust

Golden Dust

1st Place

Sacred Heart Garden Festival

Emily S. Checkley Student Competitions in Essay Writing 2006

Beams of light showered the land below, illuminating every vibrant flower so that it glowed. Birds chirped gleefully to one another, while a sly mockingbird feasted on the holly berries. Spring peepers sang of their joy in the early dawn, regardless of the slight chill of a late spring morning. The lush grass blades glittered with crystalline dewdrops from the night while the miniscule anole sipped from them.

The sun rose higher, the luminous orb glowing a rich orange, still sleeping behind cottony clouds of pink and purple. An ensemble of geese flew across the sky, awakening the creatures still abed.

Fireflies retreated to trees and bushes, their glowing bodies dimming in the sunlight, as it grew stronger still. Butterflies awoke and flittered their colourful wings to rid them of the night fog's filmy dew. The Painted Ladies and Swallowtails were among the first to flutter out of the trees, seeking the yellow blooms of lantana and honeysuckle, for they craved the sweet essence of nectar hidden deep inside.

With the morning came gentle breezes, which blew the multitude of flowers this way and that, creating ripples of colour among the garden. Bumblebees seemed to merely hover in the air, flying against the wind that tried to push tem away from their desired flowers. Dragonflies zoomed across the pond, zigzagging from cattail to cattail before flying down to a low leaf so that they could sip the clean water.

A strong gust of wind forced the great pines to sway, lowing pollen from their stems. The golden dust scattered around as the sun rose higher still, giving the garden a golden glow, creating a mystical, almost surreal atmosphere.

A human came soon, walking up and down the long cobblestone paths, her green dress becoming coated in the golden dust. Her small, fragile hands covered her face to shield her senses when the pollen was blown by, but then the girl would remove her hands, trying to brush the gold from her sunset coloured hair. She giggled, running quickly through the garden, but then stopped next to a gurgling fountain with a beautiful woman and a handsome man carved carefully with the sharp skills of a carver. The girl took a single copper coin and tossed it into the water. It was then that she left, leaving a land trail through the golden dust on the cobblestone from where her feet had danced along and her dress had dragged behind her.

Suddenly, the pollen flew up in a flurry of gold, dancing around the garden and covering her grey tracks. Soon the wind ceased and the pollen fell upon all the flower blooms, leaving them coated in the golden dust. The sun began to sink beneath the great pines in the distance, the sky turned darker and darker blue until it was almost a jet black, and little floating lights began to appear amongst the garden. The fireflies came out, and the rare Luna moths came to feed of the sweet nectar of the night flowers, all the while, spreading the golden dust.