Poetry by Kristiana Reed

     Timo Newton-Syms CC




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I Take My Bed Deep Into The Woods

I huddle onto the mud-flecked bedstead,
pull white sheets, thick,
around my shoulders and hips, sink
into the pillows, soft and warm.
I gaze up into trees full of leaves, bending
into the paths, overcrowding earth,
settling into ground ivy. 

No one else is nearby and there is silence;
welcomed nothingness,
not even birds or a stream.
I exist in a muffled cocoon
like being carried from the car as a child,
or wrapped in a towel as your mother blow-dries your hair.

The bedstead begins to sink into the earth
steadily
until the sheets crumple into the leaves,
the undergrowth close in scent
but the bed remains a sanctuary,
untouched by wildlife or insects.
This is not about becoming one with nature
but about becoming oneself.

My fingers could touch the earth if I wished.
The sky travels above me and butterflies appear --
monochrome shadows and glimpses against greenery.
I am dressed in white satin pyjamas.
I think of all the people I have been;
how I wish to leave this place as little girl me.

A magic being who believed 
she could hear the trees,
feel their souls beneath her feet.
Who believed every shadow bore a chance 
to learn a secret.
And when she prayed
things would come true;
the hills would listen,
the flowers would pass on her dreams;
not as chinese whispers,
but as cut strands of hair, tied with ribbon.

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Kristiana Reed (she/her) is a bisexual writer and the Editor in Chief for Free Verse Revolution, a literary & arts magazine. Reed often explores the body, chronic illness, addiction recovery and womanhood through the natural world and written portraiture.