Get me to the woods, leave me in deep

where the trees hold back the sky.  Where
the sun has not been seen since the bitter
claws of winter.

Someplace hard to break myself open, lose

all the stale days, the word counts, the needs
with their trinkets clasped close.

A place to pawn my skin for a new set

of lungs with a new rhythm and eyes to
see the blood of the land rise and the
sleeping gods stir.

I’ll grow into a new flesh of shadows,

insidious and necessary.

.