Originally, plants and animals

turned into people.

And people could turn

into animals or plants

when pressed, so

there were always more of them.

As you’ve heard, a European girl

became a tree when hounded

by the god of poetry.

And in the north, a fox

slipped into the tent

of a man she loved.

When he came back to find

a strange woman cleaning up,

he complained

about her musky smell.

She threw on her fox pelt, left

and has not been seen since.

The similes we see everywhere today

are faint echoes

of such transformations.

Still, the horizon will change

into a mirage

again and again.