toujours toi

plumes (loris assadian) debuted this song in an installment of his viral tiktok series, in which he strums a pink guitar and sings softly to lions, elephants, pigs, and bunnies.

i'd like to turn back time -- i'd love to go back to our very first moments.

these animals live in sanctuaries, nature reserves, ethical farms, and rescue centers. every animal he sings to holds a kind of trauma no human can ever know, and no animal can ever understand. and yet, the yearning for a simpler time, or a safer time, or a more innocent time, is all too familiar to any creature that has known life. the pig, rescued from a meat farm, feels his legs soften for the first time. his body rustles against the grass the way a leaf, gliding back and forth, lands on the surface of a lake. the sounds sway against his ears and soothe his head, a soft breeze fluttering between crackles of leaves and bark. for the first time, he gives way, not from weakness, not from fear, not from despair, but from the soft beating he hears, the strains in the bard's voice, carrying the same desire for a time where he could lay down, reassured he will be allowed to rise again. and maybe as the bard sits on his stool and strums the pink guitar, and maybe as the pine-brown pig closes his eyes and curls the ends of his lips upward, they can watch over each other as they give way.