part 2!
But the earth does not mean to cause him this pain, he knows it, for through all the pain the perpetual lightness that keeps him moving is gone and he is free of it. He need not move and breathe and talk and eat and find and live. The weight settles in his bones and he does not need to be at all.
It hurts. But he knows this is the only kindness the ground can give.
And every time it is stolen from him. Somehow adrenaline floods his veins and the lightness is back and it makes him live. It pushes him to struggle and scramble, dirt digging beneath his fingernails as he is willed by everything in him to climb out of the earth’s embrace. He chokes on the soil so graciously filling his lungs, he needs it out, hacks it up and recoils from its bitterness.
He breaks the surface and awakes, still in his bed, smooth clean linen and pillows. His fingernails are clean. His lungs sting a little from panting.
They never did that before, in the ocean.
But the earth does not mean to cause him this pain, he knows it, for through all the pain the perpetual lightness that keeps him moving is gone and he is free of it. He need not move and breathe and talk and eat and find and live. The weight settles in his bones and he does not need to be at all.
It hurts. But he knows this is the only kindness the ground can give.
And every time it is stolen from him. Somehow adrenaline floods his veins and the lightness is back and it makes him live. It pushes him to struggle and scramble, dirt digging beneath his fingernails as he is willed by everything in him to climb out of the earth’s embrace. He chokes on the soil so graciously filling his lungs, he needs it out, hacks it up and recoils from its bitterness.
He breaks the surface and awakes, still in his bed, smooth clean linen and pillows. His fingernails are clean. His lungs sting a little from panting.
They never did that before, in the ocean.
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*\(^w^)/* and it is part of something bigger but at present the whole piece is pretty hazy so I'll work on stringing it into something more coherent and post it here later when it's in better shape.