Forest of Shadows

Bare feet on the moss

Cold roots

Counting every step

Names carved in the bark

That I almost

Almost remember

Breath hangs in the air

Like pages torn from a book

Branches bend to listen

Every crow is keeping score

Forest of shadows

You remember what I forgot

Every echo

Pulls me deeper to the thought

Of all the lives I left beneath these leaves

Forest of shadows

Tell me who I used to be

Fog curls round my hands

Thin threads

Tugging me along

Faces in the fern

Flicker

Fade

Then turn away

Heartbeats in the ground

Old drums under the soil

Footprints made of light

Stepping right inside my chest

I touch the stone with my own name

Letters grown over with green

The wind says"Stay" in a voice like mine

Soft

But sharp as evergreen

I close my eyes

The dark turns clear

Every lost year blooming through me

I was the wanderer

I was the secret in the trees