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A mountain-water image declares fresh water to be free water.

The page is short but elemental. The act of pressing water to lips becomes a statement about freedom, scarcity, and the moral charge of natural access.

A reflection on the back of Bryon's head leads to knowing Bryon both cared and was scared - Bryon as nature, calling himself the double branch of blood, with the foliage before him shrinking into a desireous smile.

Bryon as 'double branch of blood' is the collection's densest nature-as-person image. The foliage shrinking into a desireous smile is both erotic and ecological - the natural world taking the form of the longed-for rather than the threatening. The narrator's simultaneous awareness of being cared for and feared keeps the human relationship from collapsing into allegory.