“Hundreds of plant species are shifting their range, each following
their own animal mediated trajectory.” NY Times “Meet the Mice
Who Make the Forest”, 11/25/22
Your genius for self-preservation through
mutation could not keep you from this end
on the damp basement floor. Fur smudge.
Tiny bones desiccated to collagen dust.
Is it too late to consider the heroic life
you might have led deep in the Penobscot
Forest? Master mind of slow-motion relocation.
How industrious you might have been foraging
for acorns, gathering seeds too heavy for
the wind to carry, burying them in rich soil
where, forgotten, they sprout and help
the great oaks to migrate north?
Imagine penance and redemption as natural
as sleeping by day and foraging by night.
The weight of ill repute for your role as plague
host lifted from your flexible shoulders. Here
you would rest in your nest of grass and twigs,
hidden from the silent swoop of the great
horned owl, gently moldering into the forest
you helped birth.
Ocotillo Review, February, 2024, Volume 8.1
Elise Chadwick 