QUOTE : I am learning to abandon the world <br />before it can abandon me. <br />Already I have given up the moon <br />and snow, closing my shades <br />against the claims of white. <br />And the world has taken <br />my father, my friends. <br />I have given up melodic lines of hills, <br />moving to a flat, tuneless landscape. <br />And every night I give my body up <br />limb by limb, working upwards <br />across bone, towards the heart. <br />But morning comes with small <br />reprieves of coffee and birdsong. <br />A tree outside the window <br />which was simply shadow moments ago <br />takes back its branches twig <br />by leafy twig. <br />And as I take my body back <br />the sun lays its warm muzzle on my lap <br />as if to make amends.