How convenient; it seems that
Someone has arranged
The rocks into a bridge,
And the creek is
Just low enough to cross.

I couldn’t pass up the chance
Of visiting the
Now forbidden park
In my neighborhood.

It has been five months since
It has been left to grow,
Since the landscape has become unhinged
A litany of chaos allowed to flourish.

I approach the crowded path
Stepping around fallen branches
Crushing leftover hickory nuts.

Purple thistle grows at the entrance
Giving way to the savanna grasses
I gawk at the dandelion stalks
And how tall they are,
And the field is covered in fleabane and buttercups
Lyre sage in tandem with the clovers.

This beloved park is unrecognizable.

No longer being raised to behave,
No one to keep a close eye on it,
To cut back its rebellion when it spreads.

It’s been abandoned, left
To choke the humanity that
Had controlled it.

In this, I am sure we are kin.

I have become untethered, unleashed
Unfurling new roots I have never seen before.

I have stretched out into the blazing sun,
Allowing myself to take up space unabashedly.

A forest all on my own
Coming out of my flesh.