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.