Day 288 – Friday, February 24, 2017

Go There

“Go there” she said

Where?

“Over there; just below the surface”

But I can’t get there

“Yes you can, now just GO”

I can’t hear anything. My ears are stuffed up and it sounds like I’m in a big conch shell…

“Well, it sucks to be you; now get at it!”

All-right! Geez

“Go inside, deep, deeper. What do you see?”

I see under the dirt, now the root. Growing, branching out. They’re spreading to touch each other and the base is sending up its sprout

“Can you hear it?”

Yes, growing

“And now?”

The tree, fallen in the ditch, I’m going between the cracks in the bark; I think it’s a Douglas Fir. Under the loose bits, following the holes: termites. I hear them; see them. White, hungry, squirming deeper, decomposing back to the earth

“And in the trees?”

The nests; they’re huge. The eggs; moving inside. Babies about to burst they’re so uncomfortable. Tiny, tiny, tiny peeping; watchful parents listening, listening, listening –wary, always watchful for predators. Warm, cold, lightness and dark. No idea what’s past the shell; just an instinct to break free

“What about that smell?”

It’s musty. Dry, like something rotting from being damp a bit, then dry again, then exposed. Pieces of cedar and dust and ferns at the base of a tree, all jumbled together –but it smells the same as a musty attic in an old home.  I don’t like it

“What about that foot?”

It’s good. OK, I think. Don’t think I went too far to cause problems. I can feel it though…

“So go there…”

OK

“Deeper”

I’m there. Bone, fused around all the metal, grown into the threads. Doctors picking it out, snipping the wires, sort of gross. Tin snips: pull, snip, pull, snip, pull, pull. And screwdrivers… Nothing too red or pissed off, just a lot of stringy muscle and bone with metal dots. Looks good

“Alright then. Good job. You can come back now”,

“Enjoy the rest of your walk…”

 

 

© Maureen (Mo) O’Brien
C U Tomorrow,
-Mo