Oh! What a beautiful surprise! Up all day and night, writing poems, feeling, processing, pouring, and from behind without a sound, Giraffe covers me, over my head, long out in front of me…. so unexpectedly.

“I have been here for fourteen months. Did you not know where to find me?” I asked him, burying my face into the comfort of his hollow.

“No, e. You forgot how  to find us, how to find you way back to us, how to see Our Fire. We waited and watched for you, Fox through The Sage, Elephant at The Door to the Room of Paintings, Chief in the half light of our glow, with The Dogs, and I, on The Rock Above Our Cave. Some Fish Who Have Decided to Stay jumped and squealed for you from The Shoreline, and also in The Channel, but your heart has been too broken to hear us, and your eyes blinded from fear. We waited so long, and you didn’t come, so we have come for you. We have come to take you home, to sleep a year’s worth of rest, and wake to stand on The Great Wall, to find your own voice again, snd Pearl into The Great White Wall of Nothingness. It is time to come home, to warm yourself, to thank The Fishes, to coo with Fox, and pour the last of this time out into The Sage, with Chief, Elephant, and The Dogs. It is time for you to finish Running Along The Ecliptic.

Come with me before the sun rises. You have never allowed yourself to be a child with us, never let us take care of you. Come. It is time now…”