The Forest on Second Thought - Jennifer Chang

[mythomanic]

The Forest on Second Thought

Never an I, never a question,
we answer without thinking

Yes even to her, the girl
drinking reflection out of the stream.

We forgive the moss its tender rudiments
and forgive the bark

for falling and failing. Winter unveils
vast secrecy. The bare branch

shows no face, the wind's echo
no voice, but there is a trail

to every arrival, and she follows
what she believes.

We were a seed
then bursting made us many.

Made us tall. From above,
her head suggests raccoon, deer,

a body scavenging
its own shadow, an animal,

all the same. Yes,
this is the root to finding, here

are the strange tracks
of another that lead to a clearing,

to a shot of sunlight and recognition.
We know what wandering is.

We know how to follow,
and we stay.

-- Jennifer Chang, from The History of Anonymity