i wandered in the forest, as so many hopeless do
despite the warnings of the wise
and found myself tracing the world
fingers ghosting over leaves and foxglove blossoms
as the woods grew dark around me
and the moon seemed to shy away from my path

when i stood still to search for it, what i found instead was her
standing tall enough to choke the light
and yet almost like a flame
bloodied flowers growing from her chest and covering her ribs
and antlers stretching from her amber hair

"i am", she spoke, "the patron of dreams just barely forgotten
the echo of a memory straying further away
the more you strive to keep it close"

a flutter between us in the silence
a moth
landing on her skin
and attempting to draw blood
where it sat, a new flower spread
swallowing it whole

my head felt heavy as i swayed
slick sickening warmth coating my teeth
i fell to my knees and as i did
my eyes met the leaves and dirt below
but where before there had been sticks and wood
i saw bones littering the earth

"it is a shame", she said
over the sound of the forest stirring
twisting with displeasure at my discovery
"you were as beautiful as you were lost"

the walk through the dark forest,
with these trembling legs full of fear.
the fear of hissing coming from a height,
And the rumors of a living giant bear.
the crying trees suffering from blight.
hands start shaking, whenever I try to write.
the experience was honest and real,
that roar if lion I still can hear.

Checking my phone
Impulsively
Don’t want to go
Home
My heart has settled
Somewhere else
Where the wild things are
In the forest of dreams

you heard me correctly darling when i said i was

going camping in the witherness. look in this bag i’ve already

packed sun strokes, swill trunks, an array of emptying

books and a flashlight that projects white moving dogs.

in the witherness, we stack silent burning gavels, achieving

the balance of a permanent new moon. we are arriving

by cheap chernobyl trucks and we’ll know when we’re there when

the engine dies and we open the hood to find a blanket-less

girl. don’t worry, she is environmental. made of mist.

we stomp on her sisters, **** like holy anorexics,

steady our foreheads on the ancient bark of

the witherness (dark hallways in a house of leaves)

Quiet now. lay your spine on eggshells so that your joints

may hatch asterisk chirp double asterisk something

akin to what asteroids do, but with a murmuring whistle

the only noise you can hear at the edge of the witherness.

I want to go exploring in the deep green woods
Where the leaves shuffle past on your feet, on your toes
Where the yellow streetlights and the red ones fade
Deer graze in the cracks at Kensington Station
Birds nest between the wheels of the dead railway

I want your lips against mine in the silence
In these hollow spaces, the reclaimed world
Bark peeling, sprouts, on the wood house beams
Colour of rust and liveliness, womb of ours, heart of ours
Greenboro metal on the slatted tracks

The howling wind gently pushed her along the dirt path,
her cloak lightly brushing against scattered pebbles,
into the forest that is known by little.
Perhaps in the hopes that no one could find her there,
nor remember her name when they do.
Most do not recognise this place.
Some who do know may say that the ones who enter are 'foolish'
She, like most, fears pain and hurt.
And thus, she enters.
There's no going back.
Foolish or not, she's made her choice.
She clenched the rims of her cloak
as she walks away, out of their lives, forever

I tried to start a forest fire so bright
But it burned my house last night
Now that my trees have all died
I can not see you

We're livin' in a forest we can't explore
In a lifetime we try to ignore
And I wanna see the whole world
The way that you do

But I need to know if you are real
Cause baby I don't know how to feel
And I cannot control my mind
I scratched out the line
And erased my past

We're livin in a blue-black world.
And you're just a red-orange girl.
We're trying not to be T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D.
And you are just trying
To hide in plain sight.

Cause we're livin' in a red-orange sea.
And I wish you were blue-black like me.
And I can not even swim,
so I'll just be sinkin in
To deep to see you.

I wanna know now if this is real.
I wish that somehow they could heal us.
We cannot be sugary sweet.
It's only you and me
Against all the odds.

So please just hold me tight.
(Hold me tight!)
Maybe even spend the night.
(Spend the night!)
You take my mind off the constant fight and
I can't lose you.

Cause we're livin in a red-orange world.
And I'm just a blue-black girl.
We're trying not to be T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D.
And you are just trying
To hide in plain sight.

Cause we're livin' in a red-orange sea.
And I wish you were blue-black like me.
And I can not even swim,
so I'll just be sinkin in
To deep to see you.

And I know you made a stupid mistake.
They thought I wasn't real and our love was fake.
I tried to stop what I knew would go down.
Now all of our colors mixed around
In the air that we breath.

Because the trees they didn't light themselves.
You held a match up and your candle fell.
There was no reason for you to doubt me.
I was too late though.
My love, I'm so sorry.

We were just livin in a blue-black world.
And you were my red-orange girl.
We were trying not to be so T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D.
And you were trying
To hide in plain sight.

Cause we're livin' in a red-orange sea.
And I wish you were blue-black like me.
(Blue-black like me!)
And I can not even swim,
so I'll just be sinkin in
To deep to see you.

We're livin in a blue-black world.
And you're just a red-orange girl.
(Red-orange girl!)
We're trying not to be T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D.
And you are just trying
To hide in plain sight.

Cause we're livin' in a red-orange sea.
(Red-orange sea!)
And I wish you were blue-black like me.
And I can not even swim,
so I'll just be sinkin in
To deep to see you.

We're living in a colorless world.
Now you're just my plain grey girl.
I tried to stop being so T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D.
And you're just laying in the box where you died.

You'll never know if we were real.
But baby now I know how you feel.
Time has passed, but I won't be alright.
Cause I lost you to the constant fight.

Cause we're livin' in a colorless sea.
And I wish you were still red-orange like me.
You float but I still can not seem to swim.
So I'll just be sinking in
Deep just to see you.

It's ok
To be sad
Or mad
Or not know who you are
It's ok
To get lost
In the forest
Of eyes
You don't need
To pretend
Everything's alright
It's ok
If you're queer
Or different from the others
Coming up with new words
To describe who you are
It's ok
No matter what
The sun will rise
And then come down
At least you have
One constant
In your life

There the floating scholar of green lines read,
There the shading peasant of sun-fields plowed,
There the fleeing empress of coral red gowns,
There the graying knight of frost-broken vows.
A tree is a haunted ruin of bare limbs and rooms.

But thought scurries around like a five-lined skink
With its tail shimmering blue as oil floating on water.