37. Whole

Life’s worldwide web… is each human body no more and no less than a cell in the body of the living earth? A self flowing through time, channelling energy, matter – a shape-shifting body and mind?

8. Life ground down, reborn

The last breath escapes. Flesh goes up in smoke; bones are ground down. Scattered ash under yew tree is covered with fallen leaves. Bones deeper down, still whole, are entangled with roots. A headstone points to the sky.

1. Who on earth am I?

Breath.   Oxygen in.   Carbon dioxide out.   Chlorophyll captures the sun.   Rice grows in faraway hills.   People harvest it, thresh it, sell.   Wind drives a turbine; wires carry energy.   Water piped here from Wales boils spinach and rice.   Food enters the tube my body is built around.