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<<cacheaudio "bottles" "http://ifyoulived.org/terrarium/bottles.mp3">>
<i>[[some days i feel more like a meadow than a human]]</i><<audio "bottles" volume 0.2 play>>
<center>
[img[http://ifyoulived.org/terrarium/sigil.png][here]]
</center>
~
<<timed 1s>>[[deep green moss|moss1]]<</timed>>
~
<<timed 2s>> the [[arching clouds|clouds1]]<</timed>>
~
<<timed 3s>> a [[single still-bright cinder|cinder1]]<</timed>>
<<audio "bottles" fadeto 0.3>>
[[growing|mossmoss]] is the story of a lifetime
but
sky [[darkening|darkening]] without dusk / a tiny [[speck|cinder1]] making its own heat<<audio "bottles" fadeto 0.3>>
the wind is ripping and tearing / but there are still patches of blue
you can see a [[bruised darkness|darkening]] gathering on the horizon
far below,
green trees form a jagged edge against the [[plains]]green is everywhere in the sunlight and cold is everywhere at night
you have grown to cover every north facing branch
nothing eats [[moss|mossmoss2]]the weight of yourself, dark and massing
<i>cling exuberant to make a river</i>
[[of stinging drops|drops fall]]
the earth rushing up to meet you<<audio "bottles" fadeto 0.3>>
you are resting on a stone, you are [[dying out|dying]]
[[the wind rises|cinder2]] / [[the air thickens|cinder3]][img[http://ifyoulived.org/terrarium/3bezier114.gif]]
<<timed 3s>>[[a dry year|drymoss1]] / [[a rainy season|rainymoss1]]<</timed>>curling into yourself
you [[wait|burning heat]]this is all you could wish for
making new
each [[morning|dew]]a blue light / dark mountains of pines
the matrix of mossgrass holding your drops
tiny
[[crystalline|end]]spring growth drying
stretched wide and parched under a deep sky
the sky saying [[hello]][img[http://ifyoulived.org/terrarium/bezier11.gif]]
<<timed 3s>>
generally avoided, at the edge of the lawn, sprinkler head rusted,
water leaking leaking into a private bog sized for mosquitos and their larvae,
puddled between st. augustine and rye grass spread years ago now and if a small enough animal stepped the ground would give way like quicksand,
this strange and swampy [[meadow|end]]
<</timed>>gold field
gold [[ending|death]][[leave seeds|end]]
[[/~ksssssssssshhhhh~/|2]]<<audio "bottles" fadeto 0.5>>~
<<timed 1s>>[[thirsty roots]]<</timed>>
~
<<timed 2s>> the morning [[dew]]<</timed>>
~
<<timed 3s>> [[burning heat]] of summer<</timed>>
growing into [[darkness]]
navigate the stones embedded in the soil, circle roots of those bigger than you, making a matrix of pale lines making a symbol of certainty in the earth
certain to grow
if you can find [[water|leaking hose]]your last breath marks a pebble
a soot-smudged gravestone of a great [[potential|2]]
your last breath marks a pebble
a soot-smudged gravestone of a great [[potential|2]]breathing breathing
deep breaths with the wind, of the wind
bright pushed off your pebble
and onto [[dry straw]]you [[catch]][img[http://ifyoulived.org/terrarium/43bezier114.gif]]
<<timed 2s>>[[/~ksshttt!~/|catch2]]<</timed>>the brambles are
[[new, pushing through the soil - all bright furls and downy sprigs|new]]
[[verdant, huge - waxy vines covered in delicate white flowers and little red fruits|verdant]]
[[last year's growth - thorns and leaves drying into a hard, hollow, brown fortress|last]]the new growth won't catch easy, smoking and spitting
still, the winter straw is a kindness, and you find yourself bigger, not quite consuming the brambles but burning them dark all the same
you make it almost to the edge of the pond before the runners give way into mud and you loose yourself
the blackened patch makes an almost-perfect circle
[[there will be no berries this year|end]]
you singe a single leaf
how [[cute|2]]you eat the grass
eat the [[brambles|all]],
you turn towards the [[southern fields|burning heat]][img[http://ifyoulived.org/terrarium/bezier114.gif]]
<<timed 2s>>
the dead leaves, new springs of growth from sleepy wildflower seeds long dormant, the rabbits that lived in the bramble, years of accumulated mulch, the single snowshoe lost last winter, the whitened bones of a fox, mayflies, dragonflies, butterflies, mosquitos, beetles, ants, centipedes, wasps, a grove of young aspens, the bark off an old sentinel pine, seedpods, bursting flowers, the poisonous berries by the dry creek, moss, ferns, the low-growth holly, nests of eggs, nests of fieldmice,
<</timed>>
<<timed 6s>>
the [[meadow|end]]
<</timed>>from here, the plains are a great inland sea of grass, hemmed by mountains
pushing into [[green|dew]] / drying into [[gold|burning heat]]<<audio "bottles" fadeto 1>><center>[img[http://ifyoulived.org/terrarium/vvcanvas.png]]
a meadow </center>