From Eden

I want to go on vacation

I sit here
I think of her
I get sad

I work hard
but don’t get mad
Freedom is an option
my ancestors fought for
but we have forgotten
that although it’s not taken in bloodshed, it still must be taken
It’s hard to feel in your stomach
that pushing on a screen is all you can do
to fall into the woods
and one day forget
that love was relegated to schedules

I want to melt into clear streams
fed by mountain springs
so broken sunlight speaks to skin
and wind moves our minds through valleys
green & yellow
whispering
valleys

All my life
I’ve wanted to learn languages
man made and complex
but they are trinkets
and I’ve ignored true embrace

When trees spoke of coming rain
When seasons arose from the breeze on my shoulder
When my family was indistinguishable from sunrise & sunset
And souls intertwined in real darkness

A piece of me grows
a single sprout
a spindly pine
clutching to the edge of a cliff
The rest of me slumbers
massive
made of stone & fall leaves
waiting
not to move
but to breathe
to give life & death
to speak
so slowly
& so deeply