Swinging from branch to branch
This is where I belong, he says
This is where I feel so free and happy
The world down there
Is filled with thorns,
It’s so painful.
He opens his arms,
Looking at the sunset,
Feeling the wind on his face
This is what matters, he says
I know that this feeling
Is what everyone down there deserves.
But no, he says
It’s not just that
It’s about the people too
He wants to slap them,
He angrily, jokingly points and spits at them
But he wants to give them all
A big warm hug, he is blushing.
We stand in a circle,
Holding hands,
He has so many friends
No, he says, not just friends
But the people I deeply love.
He takes out the thorn in his foot
The others look down,
They pull out their own thorn
But not everyone is ready…
He wants to help,
But he doesn’t know how, he says,
To do that right now.
We lay in an open grassy field, she says
Looking at the sky,
Holding each other,
Our faces are touching,
We are so happy, she says
But also sad, but our sadness
Is also part of our happiness.
He looks up at the sky
It reflects in his eye,
His beautiful eye,
Now he’s doing funny things
He’s on a hill, flexing his big biceps
With a tiny head,
Now he’s walking backwards into the forest
Goofily waving his hand in a peace sign,
Now he’s poking his head in and out of the trees,
Now he says thank you
Go now.
And so we returned.
The dimensions collapsed
And I was left sitting across from her
With the sandy walls and thorny ramparts
Slowly collapsing
Grain by grain, thorn by thorn,
Unearthing the moonstone
Entombed in my chest.