The trees are still

beneath moving stars

which float like leaves

in a rivers current;

down through space.

I lie beneath the grove

trying to be as still as a pine

trying to learn whatever it is

that makes them so enduring.

The street noise bleeds into the garden

and I try to slow down my brain

I try to know the tree like a friend

while Will vomits his vodka

and whatever else

over her thick roots.

Overhead the stars don’t stop

moving, dragging us with them

through time. It gets too cold

for us eventually, but the trees

are still, and I will never understand.

Elena Heffernan is a skanker from Te Motu Kairangi. Yellow is her favourite colour. She dreams extremely vividly and is definitely not a morning person. She is afraid of styrofoam and the big light. Currently you can find her on a train in Northern Taiwan.