Under the Forest
Pamela Benjamin (San Francisco State University, USA)
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Measurement in the forest is done in silence and soft sounds.
The crunch underfoot warns a bear of her arrival.
She is empty. Can barely walk.
She is hungry, but eating herself does nothing.
Un-time passes.
She smiles at the sun then shadows of leaves.
Can it be enough? A happy remnant of the time
before there was no gravity. Caves don’t have doors.
Hand me the knife, I will cut into her flesh like cake
easily consumed.
Cover her meaning with snow.
Someone will see in the Spring, read her bones.
Eat her flesh, dead and next to a stone
she is distance today.
Too far and without tether.
In space. Holding breath until she implodes,
becomes a diamond in orbit: a rock, a stone.
No softness remains without air.
There is no wind in space.
Her lump will become more beautiful in time.
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Pam Benjamin has her MA in Fiction from San Francisco State University and is pursuing her MFA in Poetry there because she likes little framed pieces of paper in her kitchen. She is a stand up comic and hosts “Pamtastic’s Comedy Clubhouse” on www.mutinyradio.org. Her second novella “Voices” is available on Kindle. She writes poems with a vintage typewriter on the street for money and isn’t afraid of the term “hustler”.
