In this place the trees grow taller.
I listen to the pound of my foot steps hitting the muddy earth-
a thunderstorm in beat with the tick of my heart that resounds so loud in my ears.
I look to the vast expanse of green all around me and wonder what keeps bringing me here, alone,
out of breath,
running from all that chases me.
Tick… tock… tick.
My heart ticks.
Keeping in rhythm I continue to run farther,
deeper into the green that surrounds me, until the weight of my feet let me go no farther.
I collapse and the cessation comforts me.
I feel my heart slow for the first time as the green intoxicates me, my senses overwhelmed.
My eyelids grow heavy with the newfound stillness beneath me.
Shadows swell and ebb across a carpet of mossy browns below while the canopy shivers above, caressed by the unseen sky.
I let out a sigh and am hushed by the wind,
my voice hanging in the air like a curse in a sacred place.
Time is slowed with the return of silence as I am left
Alone,
in this green again.