The changes to the ground were first made visible through graphs and diagrams.
The curves spoke for more than exponential spread. They signified desertion and collapse.
On the ground, the human footprint on the planet suddenly lightened.
Beacons of the human experience revealed themselves as fragile.
A gaze betrays. The side-eye, a glance up or down, draws the line of a confession.
People paced, walked, jogged and ran,
resisting stillness, and resisting shame.
Spring, springa, ursprung.
Subsidy became a form of subsistence,
and new dependencies bloomed
in the long, distant present.
As some marched forward, not glancing back,
others found solace in close-looking and close-listening.
Whatever direction we choose to face, we tend to fix forward.
Like the predators we are, our sight observes distance to mitigate risk.
As libertarian governments curtail freedoms,
decades of relentlessly increasing pressure begins to abate
and the fog, the smog, the belts of pollutant that smother and cloud, dissolve
to allow the once unthinkable to be conceivable.
Emergency begets emergence,
kindling, triggering, inducing, inspiring,
proximity between strangers, separated nonetheless.
A poor life this if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
