Feral

Do not seek me amongst
Sterile walls and surfaces
Where everyone is neatly dressed
Don't imagine me with
Soft, clean skin
Clean fingernails
A whiff of laundry detergent
In a building with
Exit signs
Florescent lights
Recycled air from a vent
Hard echoing floors...
.
Think of me when you see
A deer in pause
At the sight of cars
Or smell rabbitbrush
After a hard rain
.
Meanwhile
Somewhere, far away, inseparable from
spirit and place
My ribcage clatters
With the sound of birds and insects
Growing unruly with leafy tendrils
The soles of my feet painted in dirt
Feathers and sprigs of mint in my hair
My heart chattering away
About rain soaked buckskins,
And calluses on my palms
And the moon beaming down on my face at night
My stomach grasps for the nourishment of roots and berries and wildflower meals
My life is a commingling of pine needles in my dufflebag, forever finding seeds in pockets and beetles scuttling across my pillow. Each day filled with celebration, where learning the language of a lively, churning forest is as easy as reading a book. Where squatting in the woods is as normal as brushing teeth.
There is no place in town for me where my dirty paws are welcome
Their Exit signs spell 'Escape'
My free and naturalized lifestyle is frowned upon by more than you'd think
It's unwanted, uncommon and despite it being the way for hundreds of thousands of years, it holds no place within modern society.
A society where birdsong is a nuisance.
The rain is tiresome
The insects are pests.
Ancient, wild foods are only "edible" while chemicals marketed in stores are "food."
Dirt is inconvenient- though,
did we not all arise from the soil and rock we try so hard to scrub away?

There is no vacancy sign for my feathers and sprigs and beetles in cities
There is no space for a woman with body hair who worships moths and foxes

And there is no want of it. I refuse to ask permission to exist. The wind can steal my hair and the earth can stain my skin in stardust and the moths are always welcome to sleep on my cup. We will always exist insatiable for one another, never in denial of relationship, neither without nourishment from wordless, spiritual bonds.