The Grey Forest

(after Max Ernst)

A forest is a drawing-board, a supernatural insect,

a bone totem in a drained sea. It’s lonely

and conjugal trees house the last woman

in the world; she grazes naked skin on sharp

coral branches trying to reach the seaweed

cathedral of shock flowers.

Summer for the forest is the future:

the season where masses of shadows will change

themselves into words and gifted beings

with eloquence will have the nerve

to seek midnight at zero o’ clock..

The question again, on waking, on waking.

What is a forest?