I lay down until
I was mostly lichen,
a bare branch,
the bark decayed.
I lay still longer
and I became dirt,
a mushroom digging
its roots through me.
I was bound,
unmoving
until I was
raining
pouring into
the ocean
and I became
undertow.
Drowned in the
taste of
salt,
no color or smell
until the tides changed
and I rode up
on a white horse
and I saw
golden sun
blue waves
and the green
of the shore.
Ah if I knew
this was my fate
I would not have been
afraid to die.
I was inspired by Mary Oliver’s poems- many of her poems- especially ‘Sleeping in the Forest‘. My poem is only a small telling in the face of her gorgeous writing, but I thought it was worth mentioning the inspiration.