Chalk Circle

by JAYA PENELOPE  

there was a forest in my bed
small forests on my legs

cold stars blazed
in my mouth              in my mind
dreams ran like clear
water through the temple
of my skull

I built cairns of white stones               walked
bare-breasted through the rainforest
at noon               found my way home by starlight

I had not yet stepped out
of the invisible chalk circle
there was blood in my eyes              stories
I could not tell roamed over my skin

I longed to speak
but the forest spoke through me
in many voices              the cry
of the cat bird
a lost child. the guttural pulse
of koalas mating               the green
circuitry of insects

sometimes I disappeared
into the rainforest bloodstream
became sap              became water              a dream
moving through the many
chambers of the strangler fig
the sinuous belly of the python

I’d wake to find the harsh cries
of the bush turkey startled
from my tongue