I had a strange dream
I think...
it was dreaming me

I dreamed my fingers became roots,
pale beneath the soil
I dreamed my hair was hanging moss
drinking softly from the rain

There were beetles in my heartbeat,
rivers moving through my veins
And every time I tried to wake,
another flower opened

I thought I had a body
I thought the body ended here
But when I touched the tree beside me,
something touched me from inside

The forest dreams in flesh
In little bodies, warm and brief
It opens eyes inside the animals
It opens mouths inside of us

The forest dreams in flesh
A thousand hearts, a single sleep
And every creature that says "I"
is somewhere the forest dreams

The monkey moves among the branches
The serpent sleeps beneath a stone
The moth unfolds its powdered wings
A child cries somewhere in the dark

Different eyes
Different bones
But underneath them all,
the same slow rhythm

There it is again

One breath
wearing many mouths
One blood
wearing many names
One dream
forgetting it is dreaming
whenever something wakes

The forest dreams in flesh
In little bodies, warm and brief
It opens eyes inside the animals
It opens mouths inside of us

The forest dreams in flesh
A thousand hearts, a single sleep
And every creature that says "I"
is somewhere the forest dreams

I pressed my ear against the ground
Something enormous breathed below
Not like a beast
Not like a god
Too slow for anything with a name
Far away, a jaguar cried,
and something underneath my ribs answered

We were happening
inside the same thing

Perhaps the deer does not have legs
Perhaps the forest walks through deer
Perhaps the bird does not have wings
Perhaps the forest flies through birds
Perhaps I never learned to sing
Perhaps the forest wanted a voice

So it grew me

It grew my hands
It grew my eyes
It grew my little tongue
It grew my name
And when it no longer needs them...
they will fall like leaves

I thought I entered the forest
I remember thinking:
Here I am
Here is the forest
Two different things

How strange

The forest was already in my lungs
Already in my blood
It was looking through my eyes at itself
Listening through my ears to itself

There was never an outside

My hand
Our hand
Its hand

My breath
Our breath
Its breath

Then what am I?

A place

A place for what?

For dreaming

The forest dreams in flesh
In every body, soft and brief
It wakes as fur
It wakes as feather
It wakes as root
and tooth
and leaf

The forest dreams in flesh
No life alone
No separate sleep
And every creature that says "I"
is only one of countless places
where the forest dreams itself

I thought I entered the forest
The forest had entered me

No

The forest became me

No...

It always was