The Trees in You: Poems about the boundaries of self & other
Jenna van de Ruit
These poems were submitted as part of our Her Words on the World digital series, a partnership with Hedgebrook Women’s Writers Retreat to showcase the work of six talented women writers whose work explores nature and the environment. Visit our exhibit page to learn about the authors.
All Tail
This silence is not mine to
break but we shed our selves
like snake.
Why are you
scared of
broken when your skin
longs to split?
Time is in the breath
With each breath I move
closer to death. I breathe
closer, like a lover.
We understand now, virus in the air,
how each breath brings us
closer, and that we are lovers.
I cannot keep you from my lungs.
I cannot keep myself
from you.
With each breath we move
closer to death
and the ways in which
we are air and each other,
the ways in which
we cannot help but love
the world that keeps
us dying.
Things to inhabit
A spider threads itself across
two blades of grass;
draws wider and
wider circles on air,
creating a home from within.
A raintree beetle passes
through with no more
or less body
than a word.
Something sticks. The dragonfly
is consumed into another life.
No threads of
story here. Only
things to inhabit. Only
ways to be inhabited.
Writer Jenna van de Ruit is from Zimbabwe, where she currently lives in a treehouse. Read our Q&A to learn more about her.
Images: Jenna van de Ruit