THE CALL OF NATURE

I hear crickets chirping in my bones,

Cicadas humming in my brain.

Roots grow through my skin,

Weaving in and out like a tapestry.

There are dandelions on my tongue;

They taste like the sun in my teeth.

You may say I’ve gone mad,

Gone with the fishes and the birds,

But I have lived with my head in the clouds,

Since I heard the call of nature –

Of peace, of solace, of tranquility –

Of madness and solitude,

But awakening still.

And so I’d rather be mad than asleep.