Creature Speak

When days feel so surreal 
I know I’m not all here.

I must have traveled in my sleep 
or in my last daydream,

and part of me didn’t come back.

A lighter sheathe of me 
liked it better without the gravity,

in a place with light that never blinds,
and nights who are always kind

because even the monsters are friends.

And the stuff we bleed is only joy,
and only because we love to share.


I don’t mind if part of me stays gone:
because she knows her place.

When so many of us have trouble
knowing how to behave

in a world so heavy that it’s easy 
to forget we never die.

And these bodies 
are not the ultimate endeavor,

because nothing can compare 
to being everything around you, 

connected to it all and never alone.


Part of me can stay immersed 
in the magic

because even if she never comes back
to this density, 

she’ll always be a part of me.

And someday, sloughing off 
this collective amnesia

will show us all there was always more

wonder holding us and waiting 
for someone new to become.


© 2023, Sheya Forest