'Man Alive'

We strode into the forest. I could smell the wood and the earth. The trees held out their arms in welcome, offering safe passage. Branches snapped underfoot like frosted snakes and birds sang overhead like joyful orphans. I shut my eyes to distinguish between my inner and outer. A sound slipped behind my eyelids and spread colour on the dark. The air was teeming with fireflies, like hundreds of tiny match heads blistering my cold skin. The air was creamy with fireflies, so we jumped into the river. The water was cold and solid. Algae caressed our soles as our heels rolled like giant eggs along the bed of the water's course. Once under water the sound decayed quickly and the percussion became soft, but the beat was repetitive and consistent and fed into our heads as if we were entirely porous. Only now did I open my eyes. Only now did I see. Only now did I listen, and a great song rushed through me. We removed our clothes and the very particles of my being at once dispersed and joined this grand story, somewhere around the middle. The song now sung of us too and we curled up like fossils in the mud, and we all became a beautiful single drone.

Man Alive (ii):