a g r e y d e s e r t 
Door: Stijn van Erp 2019

At the edge of almost everything.
Far away from the real world.
In an area where I had never been before.
There is a grey desert.
A great nothingness.
With a huge fence around it.

One day
there in the middle of that grey mess,
In that nothingness,
In between the black and the white.
Was a little pink spot.
It appeared in the blink of an eye.

Nobody ever pays attention to the grey desert.
Nobody visits,
Nobody looks at it,
it seems like nobody cares.
Probably some don't even know it exists in the first place.
So who could have seen that pink spot?

It appeared at the point,

where people came together.
Bodies, somebodies, anybodies.
Who weren’t allowed anywhere else. 
And there was music at that point.
At first, every body was a bit shy, 
Eyes were carefully watching. 
Arms were thoughtfully choosing.
Bodies were tactfully being.
But then people opened.
Muscles were loosening,
eyes were seeing,
chests were moving. 
Everyone connected within that moment.
Everyone would see everyone.
Smiles grew on faces.
Fires appeared in tired eyes.
Bodies sparkled while dancing. 
There was this energy.
Everyone gave energy, love.
Energy exchanged.
Differences aside. 
People melted in each other.
There was no longer 
A he or a she.
A small or a big.
A difference in color.
We were one.
At a point where nothing mattered.
Not who you are.
Where you are from.
Where you were going.
What you look like.
How fat, skinny,
or handsome you are.
What you smell like.
What clothes you had on.
How much money you have.
What you had been through.
What your dreams or fears are.
Or how much love you had in you.

And in that moment
While our bodies were dancing. 
And nothing mattered anymore.
Our bodies melted in eachother,
like ice in water.
My hand melted with his hand.
My feet melted over the sand into other feet. 
Our smiles slowly melted together. 
Muscles would loosen,
Bones softening.
Skin fading.

Every point of our bodies, melted with every other point. 
Until our bodies no longer had any contours. 
Untill there was only one point, and there was no air dividing us.
Everyone in one point. 
A point that nobody owned, but everyone held together.
No longer were there things that belonged to anyone anymore.
We were anybodies.
Breathing together,
being together. 
Moving, to the beat of the music.
Ultimate connection.
Perfection. 

Although it was a small point
hardly visible in the enormous grey desert
We had enough space for all of us
And for everyone who wanted to join
they could just melt in.
And slowly,
this feeling appeared.
This collective feeling of changing.
a tickle. We were getting pink.
As pink as strawberry bubblegum.
As pink as you can think of.
And inside that pink spot was energy, life, hope, tears, love, joy.
And we were dancing, and laughing and singing.
Soon a pink light will spread through the desert.
and there was this pink blush, over the grey sand. 
It reached the fence, the city behind it 
started to notice this blush.
Doors opened,
the city looked through windows.
Started watching, 
and pointing. 
Started moving
and whispering.
Started growing
and filling the space before the fence.
Started climbing
and walking through the sand,
following the light. 

But as soon as the pink spot appeared,
in the blink of an eye, it faded. 
Back into the bodies who made it. 
Back into the desert it came from. 
But we knew we could change the world.