Being
Amelie Baker
I want to see the seasons change more than once.
Death consumes me after just one glance at the beautiful landscape. One chance to absorb it all. My ancestors whisper to me “take it all in” but I want the freedom of watching time go by forever. I don’t even remember falling, but I now lay dormant – my shrivelled and brown skeleton awaiting decay.
I feel myself slip away – penetrating the soil beneath.
I attempt to grasp a pathway which will lead me back to my life. Riddled with networks of fungi, tumours of plastic and scuttling detritivores, the undergrowth does not provide a safe route. Weaving through the soil for what feels like days, I reach my destination.
The roots of the tree begin to embrace and welcome me home.
An awful pain.
I feel myself splitting and only half of me makes it back home.
The other hides in the belly of a writhing worm, and I start to drift away.
Just as a worm survives a fatal chop and lives as two, my soul’s existence separates.
Where will the rest of me end up?
Sprouting from my home branches, I am reborn into a new body, but I can only be half of what I was in my past life.
I take in my surroundings and see a familiar shape in the distance.
The tree opposite bares a branch with a piece of my soul sprung upon it.
Maybe I can witness the seasons change forever after all.