Driven by a sense of purpose, 8 billion of us with 8 billion intentions make our way through life. We exist in vast social swarms, complex hierarchies with internal codes of logic, dependent on each other for our entire survival. We did not ask to be born.

It surely can’t be possible that one day we won’t be here, won’t be us. Life is an infinite gift, a never-ending cornucopia of pleasures to be had, meanings to be made. We regretfully trample through nature’s delicate, exquisite mechanisms, crushing other creatures as we go, confused by our cleverness, overcome by our power.

Appeasing our fearful needs, we must turn a blind eye to the filthy scraps, bits and bobs, faded latest trends, and forgotten essentials which form a jumbled, de-natured trail behind us. We are in the grip of a vertiginous momentum.

We feel empathy, we are kind, we are anxious, we have nothing but each other, we feel alone in the crowd. We continue to hope.

-Deborah Poynton