Laura Denny

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Dormancy

After they left
I lie tangled
in the roots
of my forest floor,
for a while silent
and curled up
among the layers
of all that has fallen,
listening to the current
of mycelium
whispering
through soil,
saying come,
let us help you
begin again.

Shadows move over
my burrowed body
in a slow dance of light,
in the scent of bay leaf
and river-sound,
patient
as burlwood,
waiting while the hands
of the earth fold over me,
with the old grief
of the forest.

Laura Denny is a retired kindergarten teacher who lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. She is a docent for Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Her poetry has appeared in One Art, Pictura Journal, Does it Have Pockets, Sunlight Press, and Gyroscope, among others.