Down through the pines from the lake, shards, unevenly distributed, and the odd nose, of wood, as the caterpillars rose from their dens and began to grind at the things they found above the surface, we sat, and watched, looking through pines, and said, do not emerge, but they did, and gnawed, and so we said, go back, to which they raised a head and looked at us with that look they have, so they carried on, and we looked on, and thought about the pines which they ate, as the sun began to filter through, with the gold bar that we left alone, having no value now that the world was done, right through to the bone, each bone without its marrow, hollow and whitened by the glare, our eyes long gone so that we looked from pits at the destruction of the pines, no wind, just destruction, from the entrails, water rising as vapour through the trunks that were still left and surrounding our knees, such as they were, that fell to pieces nonetheless, as knees do, eventually, nothing to walk for, just caterpillars and their dust from the tombs they made, hanging from each bit of wood remaining of the pines, that did nothing each year the earth warmed but fall, slowly, to pieces, the tombs hanging so long as they could, until there was nothing to hang from, or to emerge for, in flight, as the dust gathered, and we, or those bits of us, rolled slowly to the pit that was once a lake, and that we looked at, through the pines, as we wondered, when we could still wonder what would happen to this place now that nothing could be done, and our knees had no further reason to propel us, about, because the caterpillars did not heed us, and we knew, as they rose, that nothing would replenish, or grow from these woods, once the last great feast, of caterpillars and the like, had taken all that remained, and was still good, and turned it to shit.

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Ansgar Allen is the author of several books, including two novellas, Wretch (Schism) and The Sick List (Boiler House Press, forthcoming).

Emile Bojesen is a musician and sound artist and the author of Forms of Education, his most recent musical release is Scrape on LINE.

Image courtesy of Ansgar Allen & Emile Bojesen.