Walking on ice was nothing like walking on the ground.

Elise had never really realized it, but there was something soothing about having all of that dirt beneath you. When she was scared, she could just think about all of the worms and roots and rocks that were working together to support her and she felt a little better.

Over the lake, though, it was different. There was none of that busy com...

It didn’t exactly solve all my problems. Hell, it didn’t really even solve the one it was supposed to; the rain still sprayed against my face and beaded against the plastic of my coat. It felt nice, though. To share this tiny reprieve from a tiny problem, even if it was with a complete stranger.

I eyed the stranger in question. Her hazel eyes were bright with excitement at seeing the world so ut...

So, who’s going to die today?

Shall it be the fools that listen?

The fools that speak?

The king that watches silently?

The crowds that sing?

Shall it be you?

Your heart?

Your lavender garden?

Shall it be me?

Shall it-...

These boots have carried you far, far from home

With soles, you stride

With rough leather you roam

You’ve made friends in forests

And found foes in seafoam

So once you’ve lived and you’ve died

And the battle is done

Take your shot, stranger

You’ll only get one...

I’ve long been chased by violin

That shriek of brass, those tears of tin

That wretched bow and screaming string

That sound consuming everything

So when I hear that minor key

Begin to make it’s way to me

I know that they draw ever near

To take me far away from here...

I am the road. I am worn cobblestones shaped by the brush and stride of all who have crossed me.

And I am also the silver mist from warm breath in the cold air.

I am the soft clack of tiles placed on a gameboard.

I am a chemical reaction, an output, and so, too, am I the component to someone else’s equation. The sun against their leaves, or the salt against their soil.

I am a contributor. ...

I never realized

The air smelled like home

Till I left it, and it, too, left me alone

I hadn’t considered

The feel of the water

The grain of the wood, or

The voice of my father

Now I rest on cool tiles

That have not known my name

_Lone at home_, they cry!

_What a shame._

What a shame....

I swore I could still hear the faint music of you

Playing from somewhere I had passed by

So I turned and ran back

Past my mistakes

To before

You were not there anymore

And neither was I...

Life is nothing. Less, even. Life is a negative number. Life is the space where nonexistence falters. But all things pass. Life is a grain of sand in the eye of the world. An irritant. A disruption that will not meaningfully last.

And so, at my core, I am a guide. I have been mandated to return you to the beginning, not of life, but of nothing. The universe has chosen lifelessness, yet you seek t...

The light of the moon glints softly

By the time it reaches the seafloor

It is diluted

Broken

Weak

But it fights its way downwards

Ever farther from the source

Barely grazing the sand

Flickering over strange, moving forms

Until the sun rises again

Drowning the sea in gold and green...