I walk, I run, I drift, I drown, I float, I fumble…to what end?
I look back, and what do I see?
Smoke and ash that were once bridges. Footprints everywhere, leading nowhere. Looping trails closing in on themselves. Serpents eating their own tails. Writhing spiders caught in their own webs. Fever dreams disguised as stories.
I look ahead, and what do I see?
A mapless expanse, littered with bottomless sinkholes. Floating, glittering stairways to a glassy sky. A burning pyre of the images of the unformed. A tangled thread and a runaway needle. An infinite spiral.
Tired, I sit down. I breathe.
I cease to look backwards or forwards. I watch and listen, without straining, without stirring. Eyes closed, I let it all wash over me— the sounds and sensations, the ghastly monsters and the flaming dragons.
At first, it’s an avalanche. Soon a steady stream.
Then a trickle. And finally, it ceases.
A wave arises. Release. Relief.
Past and future. Earth and sky. Body and mind.
A melting and melding mirage.
A flickering dream, a fading echo.
Flickering, fading, flickering, fading.
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