I can hear them chant their cacophany swing in circles through the crops sing in the language of poetry and here I find I have lost that tongue I stand apart, watching the flicker of bonfire over the hill the speckle of stars spread random through the sky bracken and loam and fern my companions I wish I could speak to you as they speak to each other I wish I could touch your ears and your heart with this I wish I could sing to you the songs they sing to each other but it is not to be. I am mute here. In silence I hear you In silence you call to me In the wet earth, Scratching at the ground with long and broken nails I find you by the trail of breadcrumbs, of bits of moon. But here, in the harsh world, I don't know what to say. So I say nothing. We're good at that We speak so little and so idly Afraid of scaring you away, afraid of scaring ourselves To live, one must die, the poem goes To die, one must live. I will never die. I have never lived.