I was trying to get closer to nature so
I went into the woods.
I listened to the birds craft harmonies
sweet enough to make your mouth water.
I watched the oak and the birch and the maple
whisper ancient secrets lost to man.
I tasted the nuts and berries
Demeter had created to satiate our hunger.

I felt nothing.

With desperate madness
I plunged
my hands into the soft earth
and pushed
my fingers, hands, elbows into the dirt.
The scent of dank decay surrounded me
as my head, torso, and the rest submerged.
I went in deeper,
my body pulled down by mystic gravity
or strength of will.

I was drowning in silence.

I continued
until I stopped
seven feet down
vertical
and suffocating.

But I could not help but laugh
as I realized
that I was as close to nature as any man would ever be.

I had dug my own grave.