The words are deep and dark and green and brown, the world recedes here, no buzzing phones, no texts, no news or messages or political posturing  from the other world. The dogs, alert and different here, are not pets for now, something in them knows this is their true home, they carry it in their genes and noses and in the way they walk and hold themselves.

They are the masters here, the leaders and guides. They walk ahead of me, circle back to check on me, to push and pull me along with them. I could not find the path back, I followed them, and they brought me home.