in the woods; a poem

I belong in the woods.

To the woods.

In the hollows of fallen trees where the mushrooms grow,

In the shade of a stream that has broken its boughs and soaked the forest floor,

In the thickets and in the moss and in the leaves.

I hear the forest calling to me,

Late at night when the world is asleep and I am not,

Come back to me, it sings through the lights and noise of the city,

I miss you,

And it is all I can do to lay in my bed, smelling loam and dark quiet places.

It comes to me all at once, the realisation:

That I am more woods than woman,

And one day I will go back there,

To that sweet soft earth,

And to the glens where deers forage,

And to the fogged horizon,

Where trees meet sky.