To the Forest

By Natasha Bredle

---

I go to the forest 
to find more of you. 
Spring is late coming. 
Naked trees compose 
a worn blanket over 
the land, softly stirring
above a leaf burial. 
Branches elongate 
as if to caress your spirit
halfway to the sky. 
The sun seems a wingspan
away. The world is not quiet,
but I can hear less of it here.
Here, where I stop 
in the middle of the trail
and hold my breath as if
my presence is what keeps
some beautiful thing 
from appearing. Here, 
where I wonder if 
my arm span can compute
the ambiguous distance
between us. Here, where I am
so close to believing you
are not so far. If a deer 
shifted amongst the brush,
I would see it. If it dragged
its hoof along the forest
​floor, I would feel it 
to the bone. If there 
was a fox, a rabbit, a robin,
I would pledge myself 
to love them while 
existing with them.
Funny, how you are both
everywhere and nowhere.
I await something new
and magnificent, only to
receive what’s 
already been given. 
I go to the forest 
to find more of you. 
I find you are so much more
than something hidden,
​instead.

---

Natasha Bredle is an emerging writer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her work has been featured in publications such as Words and Whispers, Heart of Flesh Lit, and The Madrigal. She has received accolades from the Bennington College Young Writers Awards as well as the Adroit Prizes. In addition to poetry and short fiction, she has a passion for longer works and is currently drafting a young adult novel.

Natasha's other work on Foreshadow:
The Answer (Poetry, May 2023)