Simon walked down the bustling, busy streets of New York for most of the day. Just like everyone else, he had places to go, and needed to go there fast. No time to talk, look at, smell, or bump into anyone else. They all wore blinders like race horses, and Simon was no different. As he walked briskly down another crowded street, he saw a familiar patch of grass that were tossed about various parts of town. They sat there as if meticulously plotted and planned by developers as a tribue to mother nature to pay for the synthetic concrete damage they had bestowed upon her. Usually, they were littered with dog shit, but this one seemed relatively clean, so he took his chances. To bypass the oncoming horde, he moved to his right and stepped on the grass. The the grass was soft and welcoming to his foot, and for a brief moment he forgot about the fumes and noise of the city around him. As his left foot landed on the dirt in front of him, he noticed his right foot refused to moved. He thought the worst, but when he looked down there was no dog shit to be found. His foot sat beautifully on the dirt, hugged by blades of grass. He jerked his leg as hard as he could but it still wouldn’t budge. What the fuck is going on, he thought. It was as if he was lodged in wet concrete, and of course his left foot followed suit. He was stuck in place, and worst of all he was going to be late now. He tried pulling at his legs, nothing. Tried jumping out of his shoes, but it was as though his shoes were holding on to his feet desperately. He leaned over as much as he could, in attempt to convince gravity to pull him out of his predicament. Still nothing. Two minutes turned into five minutes, which in turn became ten then twenty minutes, and he just stood there like an asshole. He felt embarrassed by his lack of ability to free himself, and felt judged by the busy, rushing people who were passing him. “Excuse me, could you give me a hand?” he began to call out to passersby, but nobody responded to him. At first they gave him funny looks, but eventually they stopped acknowledging him altogether. His legs began to feel stiff, but he was surprised by his balance. He was almost beginning to feel comfortable standing there, when suddenly he felt a shooting pain stem from the bottoms of his feet. Hundreds of tiny needles felt as though they were piercing through his skin and shooting into the ground below. The pain was unbearable, but ended after only a few minutes. He went to bend his knees to get a closer look at his feet, but they were locked into place. He could feel his bones begin to stiffen and his skin tighten. He felt his legs and they were rough to touch. He looked down and where his shoes once were he could only see bark that was slowly spreading up his legs and beginning to join as one. As he looked around desperately to the people passing him, nobody seemed to notice what was going on. It was as though he stepped into a bubble in space and time when he walked on the grass and the world around him was oblivious. He tried to shout but his voice had become that from a dream. No words left his throat and he could only hear the sound of his breath attempting to speak. As the bark travelled up his body and down his arms, small branches began to stem from his fingers and forearms. The transformation was speeding up. The branches began to spout bundles of leaves that extended into glorious gatherings of green. Although his panic was still prevalent, he couldn’t help but admire the beauty of what he was becoming. His arms stiffened out to his sides until he was in somewhat of a T-pose as the secondary branches multiplied. Within moments, his vision was encompassed by sturdy branches and shade providing leaves that extended far over his head. He felt energy from the earth below him travel up the needle-like fingers that spouted from his feet all the way through his body. It felt amazing. This was more life than he ever felt before. He no longer remembered where he was going, and only knew where he was. He took a deep breath of carbon dioxide and felt a brand new renewal on life. As light shined through his bunches of leaves, he began to notice the hurrying city folk who were rushing by him on their way to their important destinations. He saw them looking at him, some even smiling. They were no longer annoyed by his cries for help. They were interested in what he had become. One couple sat beneath him for a few minutes and smoked cigarettes, and a child tried to climb him. He enjoyed being of service to them and no longer counted the minutes. As far as he knew, days could’ve past since he first stepped onto the grass. He couldn’t see it, but he felt a dog sniffing his trunk and circling him. The dog pissed on the left side of his bark, then walked forward and dropped a fresh shit on the grass in front of him. Simon laughed to himself, and the friendly wind rustled his leaves while they ate the sunshine.