To our mom. Thank you for the things you encouraged us to see.

Sorry Forest

They called her The Sorry Forest because her limbs grew twisted and intertwined.
Her trunks spindly, covered by ferns and fungi

She wasn’t sorry, however, for she had a secret.
Within her tangled growth,
She was home to the vagabonds and the unsheltered.
She kept company with critters and the bones of the forgotten.

In the course of time, giant metal beasts rolled in with their massive jaws and destroying claws
Chasing her friends away
Ripping off her limbs and cutting through every ring
Until there was nothing left of her but her final secrets

The family that stood around her swayed and shuddered in their grief
The beasts continued digging and clawing at the earth she had stood in.

There they found her final secrets
The bones she had cradled within her roots
Keeping safe their final rest.

The beasts, they left
Abandoned her shattered home
Her memory lingering in the earth
Deep where the destroyers could not reach it

Seeds worked their way to the surface
Through the stones, pushing toward the sun
Her story still needs to be finished.

PKGlaser 09/22