As I saw you I stopped, carefully lowering to the forest floor so as not to announce my presence. You seemed so at peace. I didn’t want to interrupt your comfort. I simply wanted to watch, and appreciate. I knew how it felt to be discomforted, and I wanted to shield you from that, wanted a window into your peace. You gazed through the forest. Not out of fear, or curiosity. You simply looked, stepping through the green before finding a patch of grass to graze. The curve of your neck sloping down. Grazing to your heart’s content. Tail swinging back and forth. Without urgency. Stopping only when a goat-like yelp called from the distance. To which the mother’s ears flitted towards. Her baby was calling. She grazed once more before going to return to her young. Pausing to sniff at the air, before turning in my direction. Tail still swinging, she looked at me. Finding me through the wooded cover. Blinking my way nose twitching, until another cry that sounded like “mom” was heard once more, and I was given a final blink. An invitation, before the mother turned and left. And I stayed on the forest floor until you were gone. Returning into nature.
To the land, I could not yet go.