Sunrise

Sunrise approaches. I can feel its presence burning behind the hilltop and reaching for its zenith. Stifling a yawn, I watch as the sun peers over the horizon, letting its small feathery fingers scrape the landscape ahead of me, scalding it orange. Soon there is a golden web that covers most of the valley, stretching out and dissipating like smoke. It fumigates the essence of night-time that still lingers over the grass, reluctant and obstinate. But coaxed like an unwilling child, the frost soon gives way to dew and cascades over the greenery creating a flood of water that spills over the hill like stubborn tears.

Sniffling and whining, the night eventually disappears in rivulets, leaving dawn to mark its territory on the depths below. I pick up a rock from the ground and let its firmness sink into my palm. Dawn always seemed like a pale, weak time of day, not quite warm or cold, light or dark. But something about such transience draws me in, magnetising me to its vagueness, un-bordered, unshaped. That same appeal must have woken the birds for they start their warbling almost as soon as the sun tips the leaves gold.

If I listen closely I can fancy I can hear the yawns and sniffles from the blue-tits, the grunts from the magpies and regal sighs from the buzzards. A swish of wings and the petulant squawk of territorial birdsong begins, painting the sky colourful with noise. As the day prepares to take its first flight, the hill appears to flex, as if stretching after a deep sleep. Shadows ripple over the land at an archaic pace, casting darkness and light where they please. I shiver as one carelessly breaks the moist air around me and covers me in icy coldness. My fingers grapple with my jacket and I pull it tighter around me, letting my breath frost in front of me, momentarily clouding my view.

With a silent gasp the sun is released from the hill, pulling free of it like a fish breaking the surface of a lake. Just as water still clings to its body, so the sun seems to be tainted with night-time, glittering with the brilliance of stars. It sheds this layer of sparkle as soon as it gains new heights in the sky, its rays becoming bolder and harsher against the landscape, shadows taller, the air hotter. The sun is up, night has gone, the day is begun.