The trees are pathways
The sky is my sea
The rain on the sill is my freedom
I am a ghost here
Though I never died
I'm a phantom of who I once was
A memory of a girl
But the rivers, lakes, and roads
The rushing sound of the ground underway
The rumble of thunder
The soft scratch of snow
Pressed under sodden boots
The heat of the sun
Wrapped warmly around my cheeks
All of these things
They're inches away
My heart sings a woeful tune for them
A longing and desperate song
The need filling me to the brim
The need to feel the salt water in my veins
The mountain air in my lungs
The soil staining my skin
To hear the earth
Living
Breathing
Consuming
To let the fires burn
And the storms rage
To watch the mighty heart of nature
Shake us to the core
When the wolves howl
I also cry out
When the wind whistles
I also start to breathe
The wild calls to me like an old friend
A love so old
Unable to be shaken
So confident
In the way it caresses my soul
I long to succumb to its embrace
To fold myself in blankets of ferns
Or blossoms
Or roots
I long to hear her whispering
To return to the girl I used to be
I yearn for the power of her presence
The vitality of her that lives in my soul
For the breath of life
That she grows at the tips of her fingers
I am her child and though I am lost
I have not forgotten
That her rivers run through me
And the water will one day
Call me home