Three Steps to the Event Horizon

The spindly bare oaks
Peered through the window,
Scratching like voices
Or like cats pawing
For the other side.

This never happened.
This happened as if
Your life depended
On it, as if oaks
Depended on it.

Take one step away
From what concerns you
About what people
Do to those like you
Who are people, too—

One step to the oaks—
And see how quickly
It all becomes strange.
Those alien oaks
Weren’t peering at you,

Weren’t pawing the glass,
Weren’t trying to get
Through to anyone
Anything like you.
Two steps, and the world.