Knowing

It was the gaze that gave her away. Eyes upon him in the forest. She saw him there, and he felt it all at once. Just before, his eyes passed over her form without immediate knowing. Dappled sunlight, cast shadows of leaves, her skin. The knowing caught up with him all at once and his legs stopped dead. His eyes rolled back over in a rush and she was there wearing the kind of curiosity bestowed by a secluded vantage. He half-expected her to turn and disappear into that foliate backdrop, but his knowing did not stir her.

Theirs

He concluded theirs
was of greater magnitude
Kept
in a vessel all its own,
apart from the rest
He thought holding it up
to compare it with the others,
did it no justice at all
To do so,
would be to cast a shadow,
to drown a nurturing light
No,
this was separate,
in a vessel all its own
Ornamental, yet functional
Bordered by copper and lead,
a chamber of ideal conditions
And there,
it incubated

Customers

Their eyes, somehow cavernous, blinked frequently - as if pleading. It was desperation there. Urgency too. Sometimes they'd just toss the substance on the glass, once a rich yellow of luxurious splendor, now tarnished grey or brown by the squalid environs they inhabited. They needed to trade it, so they could trade some more. Who knows where they slept? Somewhere you wouldn't. It'd put them in some heavy-limbed half sleep after that initial euphoric rush. Those first few seconds made it all worth it.

I can't decide. Conflicted all the time. There are fleeting moments of rage for their self indulgence and inconsideration. Most of the time it's pity.

Cormac

"They heard somewhere in that tenantless night a bell that tolled and ceased where no bell was and they rode out on the round dais of the earth which alone was dark and no light to it and which carried their figures and bore them up into the swarming stars so that they rode not under but among them and they rode at once jaunty and circumspect, like thieves newly loosed in that dark electric, like young thieves in a glowing orchard, loosely jacketed against the cold and ten thousand worlds for the choosing."

Forest Runner (roughy)

He ran, because he couldn't bear to walk. There was something within him that urged him forward at a pace he could not seem to match. Still, he tried. He ran. All urgency, pushing branches aside and breaking through others. At sporadic moments he would leap down the hillside and slide upon the leaves and soil, and then he would run some more. No destination in particular, just a void. It was raining, and before long he was coated in mud and bits of forest matter in the form of leaves and moss stuck to his skin and hair. He smelled the rich texture of the earth, and ever so slightly he tasted it on his tongue. He wanted to become a part of it, to absorb it through his pores until he'd rupture. He imagined unfurling in a fountain of fungal decay.

Antlered Elders

Its bones now branched beyond
Externally, out from its skull,
blanketed in a film of velvet
He thought how luxurious it would be
to lay upon them at their widest point
in that parabolic plane of ivory
And there he'd sleep, curled,
embryonic as intended, secure
To wake each new morning
from the steady rise and fall of it
upon sights before unseen
Sacred haunts, ancient, known only
to the antlered elders of the glade

Closer Still

We came to rest so near
to one another, at the end
On the floor of your room
Steeping in that scent of
lavender tea, calendula petals
I struggled not to smile, so
hesitant to reveal myself a fool,
because I began to feel
what I'd been hoping for,
and I thought, perhaps,
your rational defenses
were overwhelmed, awash,
dissolving away from you
And in that silent sea
we drifted even closer
Careful, I made no notice
as our shoulders touched
It was there, careening,
we painted our fingertips blue
We felt no inclination to speak
as our hands drew nearer,
and I was never so anxious
as when they finally met
I recall the feeling clearly,
but thus far can't articulate it
It was in that context
my mind held no focus,
as if it were overtaken
I acted on convolutions
of instinct and suppression
from then on out
And I still do