You could find me here if you came back
retracing your steps through the thick woods
You could find me beginning to soften
beneath dead leaves, mold-silver edges chewed
by dew and crowds of mushrooms, eyeless
witnesses emerging from the moss
You could find me buried in bracken, host
to pearly slugs and roots like nerves
with everything I once kept to myself—
love, kiss, heartbeat, dream—now opened
like a treasure box for the forest’s fingers
to softly paw through and soon enough
when you come, if you come, there will be
nothing to find but warm decay
seeping into a thousand lives and blood
that loved you melting back to the earth
Jacqueline West’s poetry has appeared in Mythic Delirium, Strange Horizons, Liminality, Enchanted Living, and Star*Line. Her first full-length collection, Candle and Pins: Poems on Superstitions, was released in 2018 (Hiraeth Publishing). She is also the author of the NYT-bestselling middle grade series The Books of Elsewhere, the YA horror novel Last Things, and several other award-winning books for young readers. A three-time nominee for both the Rhysling Award and the Pushcart Prize, Jacqueline lives with her family in Red Wing, Minnesota. Find her at jacquelinewest.com or on IG at jacqueline.west.writes.
photo by Annie Spratt (via unsplash)
Crow & Cross Keys 