they're asking where you went, mother nature

I fell asleep in the forest

in the weak winter sun

to forget I lived

I felt the soil welcome me

moss grew 

under my blackened fingernails

and trees swelled

in my aching lungs and hacking chest

flowers bloomed over my eyes

that had seen too much.

Ivy held together

my splintering bones

bottlebrush grew

where my crimson heart once lay

aching with sorrow

for this cradling world

choked with factory smoke

and riddled with bullet holes

from a rich man's war