Alexa Daskalakis

The Man Who Buried Himself

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Once, there was a man who walked to the edge of a field
with a shovel in his hand.
He wasn’t old. He wasn’t sick.
He simply said,

“I think I’ll go underground for a while.”

People thought he was joking.
They smiled. Laughed.
Asked what he meant.

He didn’t answer.
He just started digging.

—

At first, they tried to stop him.
They reasoned with him — reminded him of the sun,
the air, the music.

But he said,

“I’m tired of being seen.”

And when they asked if he wanted company down there,
he said,

“No. That would defeat the point.”

So they left.

And the man kept digging—
he had a few familiar things he kept down there—
until the earth folded over him,
not by force,
but by choice.

He called it peace.
But to everyone watching,
it looked exactly like death.

But if he ever came back up,
no one saw him do it.

But someone would still see him.