I am taken by a majesty: the unraveling of the shell. The hidden essence revealed; awkward, disheveled, unaware and blunt. The careful encasement lost could never match its appeal. It is instantly magnetic and rich with soil and weeds so overgrown they are the playground of rejoicing magpies. I do not recover, am forever marked by the presence. Forever in absence of it, waiting for its return. I am shaped by the absence, hiding within my folds, slipping between my skins, of everyone’s inner moment. I plunge to the river bottom and sit on the ocean floor to be enveloped in silent severance from the absence that rings in the lightness of the air. To be awake is to be apart and I devote myself to defying this. I am taken always and I take what I can.