Branches sway above me,
they rise and fall, winds curling
throughout these natural lungs.
I cannot feel the sunlight,
those leaves a wall,
green cage and wooden prison.
I am slumped, a small pile of
human with legs pulled close
and vision obscured.
I race, stationary, escaping from
the prongs of night that
creep through trunk and shrub
to scratch at my flesh, to rend
my body in flagellation that
I am owed.
Maybe I shall stay here,
allow this decay to course
throughout my frame and drag me
into the soil.
I am lost inside myself,
and I shall never be free
of the shade.