I am penetrating
earth and becoming
a root that spreads and plunges
deeper and deeper still
and shaking hands with
the glittering mycelium

sprawling and glowing in the depths
a city of fungus surviving and
surviving
with all the gods the humans

I dream of surviving with them
becoming strength and song
and deepening and widening
and holding my beloved
my beloveds

we will forever be the tree

my juncos and goldfinches
beetles and moths
and hawks and cicadas
and squirrels and wind
and storms and so much heat
and so many unseen stars

I dream I am holding
all of you
for as long as I live

[Wende Crow’s poems and stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, LIT, New Haven Review, Inquisitive Eater, Big Windows Review, and Hartskill Review, among other journals. She received her MFA from the New School and teaches poetry for the International Writer’s Collective in Amsterdam.]