50 Ways (or there-abouts) to see the Sunrise

1. Going to work in mid-January here on Saaremaa, not yet risen sun at 08.30 streaking the sky with golden pink and steely blue; the first rays - shattered orange, deepening shadows on pristine snow into lilac and cobalt

2. Walking home along the beach after a loooong night in the bars and clubs of Xania; sky milky blue, promising heat, sea hushing onto the shore, sweeping the disco thump out of your head

3. Lying naked on your back in the sea, after spending the night on the pebble-sand beach in Agia Roumeli; the only way to finish a treck down the Samaria Gorge; the gold so fierce you either retreat to the wet or hide behind a rock to try and sleep a little longer

4. Back against a rock, watching the last embers of the Mid-summer bonfire losing the competition to a round red flaming ball rising from darkened pines; 'Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. ' It always rains on Jaani Päev.'

5. Further north, in Helsinki, after another long club night, on the back side of Katajanokka Island, one arm trapping a lamp-post to suspend disbelief, the blazing disks setting and rising simultaneously ' the sky a panorama of glowing rubies knifed by obsidian clouds and the first clattering tram of the morning.

6. On the Staten Island Ferry after the very late closing of your downtown local; too late to go home without eating, too early for real food; ride the ferry, back and forth for a nickel, waving at the harbour lady with her torch until the Din Sum shops in Chinatown open; green tea and crab claws, pork filled dumplings and fried shrimp; forget about sleep, who needs sleep when the whole of New York is calling you.

Want to comment on this Prose? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Prose and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...