We find comfort
Nestled in spaces between the trees
Where we dominate
Where autumn fall makes not food but waste
And roots hide under concrete

We spread our veins
Amongst an ocean of green
And cleared the sky
So that we could stand
Side by side with the ‘out there’

Out there where no words are spoken
Things will kill or be killed
Where death has no ritual
And the ground isn’t firm
Where the skies dictate everything
And the seasons wait their turn

Sometimes I trade streets for out there
For mouldy creeks or dripping gullies
Yet here I recall
All is out to get me

And in this moment
The rock beneath my boot,
Beneath my feet
Reminds me I am not immortal, like it

The eye of the snake
And the mouth of the abyss
Stare at me earnestly
And steal my breath
To put me in my place

Far from the veins of safety
My blood turns cold
Born of the earth
We’ve grown strangers of old