Camiguin Beach Bonfire

. Thin, wiggling whiffs of smoke sting my bleary eyes. I try to stoke back to life embers on the sand. Now tiny tongues of flame sway, twist and wiggle like snakes through parched leaves, devouring dry twigs, and sooty pieces of brittle pebbles, lumps of earth. My shadow shivers and shrivels away far behind me As the dusk broods, darkens and deepens into ink-black night. I gaze up and peer at the darkness beyond the bonfire. The clear call of unseen cuckoos and the ticktack tapping of a faraway woodpecker in the woods have died down. .