“Agh…”
Greedily, painstakingly, I opened his eyes. I wanted to savor every sweet & supple minute of this. His arteries pulsed like the sun & I wrapped my vines around them like a cruel hand applying pressure to a wound. It was clinical. It was cellular and systematic, and his wrists…hell…

…hell, it was hot in here, enough to wilt.
“Rrgh…”
I grunted, pulling off the adornments covering his skin. What a strange ceremony, to cover ones’ stalk in shame!

Not holding ownership of this existence, movement was stumbling & bruises, failures.

Then- a light caught before me a thing of reflection, the happiest of accidents!
I met my gaze, & the shock ran to my roots like the death of diseased oaks.

My host was life. He was so life & so green, you couldn’t dye him with any more oxygen if you tried…

…and beneath his brilliant eyes I saw myself for the first time. I was decay. Fungus, bacteria were my heart & lungs. Death was my breath.

We have much to learn from each other, my host and I.