After the beast escaped…

it was free
to be free.

On the run
from no one.

The warmth of the sun,
on its back,
released the knot
in its neck and the clench
from its jaws. Its shoulders
dropped
and shuddered.
It wept a sea’s worth of tears.
Inhaling fresh air,
it exhaled a smile,
for the first time—
in what felt like
10,000 lives.

This beast
became a river,
who flowed and flowered a forest,
and gave birth
to the ocean
churning beneath
your feet.