Forest

Erogenous zones in oaks

slung with

stoles of lace-lichen the



sun’s rays spilling

through leaves in

broken packets a force



call it nighttime

thrusts mushrooms up

from their lair



of spawn mycelial

loam the whiff of port

they pop into un-



trammeled air with the sort of

gasp that follows

a fine chess move



like memories are they? or punctuation? was it

something the earth said

to provoke our response



tasking us to recall

an evolutionary

course our long ago



initiation into

the one-

among-others



and within

my newborn noticing have you

popped up beside me love




or were you here from the start

a swarm of meaning and decay

still gripping the underworld



both of us half-buried holding fast

if briefly to a swelling

vastness while our coupling begins



to register in the already

awake compendium that offers

to take us in you take me in





and abundance floods us floats

us out we fill each

with the other all morning



breaks as birdsong over us

who rise to the surface

so our faces might be sprung

Forrest Gander, a writer and translator with degrees in geology and literature, was born in the Mojave Desert and lives in northern California. Read more.


Forrest Gander’s “Forest” was first published in Emergence Magazine. Published in Twice Alive (2021, New Directions Press, NY). 

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