In the Dream, a Tree

Poetry, a fiction

The child walks into a forest that no one planted—
not in this world, not in any world that counted her.

The trees do not ask where she's been.
They do not care that her name was forgotten
by the people who should have sung it
into lullabies, carved it into birthday cakes,
whispered it like a prayer before sleep.

She touches the bark. It does not flinch.
It doe…