By early winter
Our world begins to shift.

Approaching dusk
We stroll miles from houses
Sunk into valleys of animal-empty fields

The sky swells, leaching colour
All the way down to distant hills.
Watery light seems to draw us in.
Seaweedy mist moves with us
Hangs onto our clothes.
Trees become petrified
Black coral scrolled onto fading sky.

Feeling submerged as deep-sea divers
Our wellingtons drag heavy mud –
Sleepwalk through an underwater world
Unable to pull free.

Our bodies dissolve into the scaley grass
Depth-charged by living shadows –

Twilight is the crack between the worlds

Fish-eyed with awe, we walk the dark
Till morning brings us back
To a safe life, solidity of home

Our familiar sphere of blue
A single drop of dew spinning through space.