Day 11?
Shadows can't exist without light. So what is the light and where is it? I don't mean the shadows we all have, I mean the shadows we all are, at least on occasion. So what lights us, and what casts us?
And what stops us from being shadows and returns us to being human?
---
The days are fairly quiet.
Noelle is back to me.
We spoke for awhile.
She does not like who I am friends with, and I don't know why.
Why why why.
I'm sorry, Noelle, it's who I am. I see the good in everybody here.
I see so much about them.
And that is what I cling to.
---
I hear them say that Walter is a bad deer.
I see that, certainly.
But I also see the good deer who watched over me as a fawn for hours.
I can't make you see that, I know.
But at least I will.
---
Where are you, R?
You have disappeared.
But I know it isn't forever.
I will see you again.
I promise.
---
Brd, little gray bird with clipped wings.
You seem so sad to me, and I can't figure it out.
I can't find out who clipped your wings so that you can't fly anymore.
Maybe I can make them grow again for you? Maybe with enough happiness, the feathers will come back in and I'll see you soar.
I'd like that.
---
Little gray Brd, I was happy to see you again. But Poet, Blue Stag, was not.
He does not like you, Brd. You know this.
I do not know this.
I don't understand why he is angry, not when I can see who you are.
...I see. He is wearing his mask too tightly to see you. It has blinded him.
When I call him to us, you run.
---
But you do not run far. I follow you, but you tell me not to follow.
How can I not, Brd?
But I don't. I let you have space.
---
Blue Stag comes to me, and we play for awhile.
He can't spell me with the red pelt!
I win, you see. I always do.
I see you there, little gray bird.
But you do not want to come closer.
---
Solitude. The silence is bliss for a little bit.
I am alone with my own thoughts.
So rare, like honey.
Hello, red grass, hello white trunks of trees on the border of the green and brown.
Light and dark.
Yet neither of you are shadows.
---
Blue Stag follows me. Brd follows from a ways away.
You two are so silly. Do you see what I do?
So I try to bring you together to see what I see.
Grass crunches with frost as I draw you together.
It is getting cooler here in this endless forest.
You, blue and gray, repel like magnets.
For a few moments, I can hold you together.
Then you repel apart with such force as if you had never, could never be together.
That's okay.
I'm still here for both of you, all of you.
---
Look, little bird, look.
The sky is crying.
The tears make mushrooms grow.
Isn't it beautiful?
I laugh with joy at the rain.