The forest still speaks
but farther away now
The creek changed languages overnight
and I no longer know how to answer.
I sit beside the water
waiting for the old feeling to return,
the one that used to loosen the knot in my chest,
the one that made the trees feel like witnesses
instead of strangers.
But exhaustion has weight.
It hangs from my shoulders like rain soaked clothing.
Even beauty feels heavy now.
The spider’s web still glistens,
the birds still scatter music through the branches,
the wind still moves carefully through the leaves
yet something inside me
cannot reach them.