I am a sylvan government a woman answering to no searchlit realm
if born then underwood rule staggerbush and stamped foot

queen of the country of one my arms tree all the nervous branchings
twigs knot and knuckle lift canopy greening the skies my wronged

name in the contrails loose puffs all caps only true
signature a thumb's blood tale like rings inside the oak

I do not love the exoskeleton of cities with birch bark I wage
a paper war melancholia can scarcely scrawl all my known and craved

soul and cell composing only wilderness give gooseflesh body hour
to everything I wanted to feel with strangers unlocked in woods

I am a bared woman cedar room for linen change of heart
hungry larvae live webbed in crack of the eavesdropping door

I wet clay tablet words back to mud to build a river home
curtains winged with moths chewed empty as the nothing I owe

Jenny Grassl

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