“Too in your cave you live,” she claims. Our thoughts there are one.

“Every day lights from the stream sparkle into our eyes.” As she drinks she is showered in sensual bliss.

“The rains, rays, and stars themselves fall on and around us all the while we graze.” Under shine or night she enjoys her food.

“I move from grounds to grounds among those of my kind, part of a whole. You…you fly out alone only to feed, and always return to the same dank hole.” She is whole and I am fragmented.

“I, and others like me, feed on the abundant ever-growing greens, while you grow from the life of others. How very selfish of you.” They are sustained by perpetual life, and I by death.

“I, like the rest of my kind, am to this world a valuable commodity. The very shirt off my back protects the whole of man. I serve my part in protecting the flock. What good are you for?” I serve none but myself, and have turned my back on my kind.

“Does anyone consider you a divine creature? I bet not.” My home remains unlit by the grace of the heavens.

How can one to another teach what to the self should be taught?

Below me runs the stream—it’s where they get their drinks. She’d have to look up to the ceiling to see me crawl into the light, but she doesn’t. Without even looking she talks to me knowing I am there. I come forward anyway so that she might more easily hear my reply to her thoughts, but as if on cue, a horse trots in.

“Still here, Bat? Well, it’s nice to see you again.” I did not recognize this horse anymore more than I did the sheep, but I like horses much more. They care less about what I do or don’t do. “You should get out more. Do you think a muscled physique like mine can be had by staying inside all the time?” A chest like his would benefit the likes of myself. Still, I prefer my own company.

“We should go running sometime—” his eyes drew up to the ceiling and saw me, “or…you know, try.”