Hey, do you think you could return my child to me?
Not as a baby girl not
as a butterfly not
as a monster, but a young human
safe
and
healthy
A person in the world
Do you think you could bring him
back to the time when I left him here
Maybe I had asked for something then?
I don’t remember what it could have been.
Did I trade him for something?
Did you take him against my will?
Can you bring him back against his?
Or that 12 year-old, that child on the precipice of self-knowing
The birds sing like he’s still here, but I know he’s not
Golden underworld Eden
Ropes and vines and humming life
If I accidentally left him here, could you please give him back?
What if that 12 year-old is stuck here in the same way that maybe I’m actually standing in front of the bathroom mirror tripping on Salvia divinorum
Dreaming this alternate life
And here he is
Stepping out of the woods, returning to my arms
back to my car back to his body
Embracing
