"The wild will call you back...

The Wild will call you back. 

Through half-remembered dreams 

and sunsets painted 

in burnt sienna 

and vermillion flames

she will call you back home.

The coyotes will wake you 

from your sleep

with their clarion call

to keep your eyes

wide open.

How long have you been sleeping?

How much have you forgotten?

The Wild will call you back.

She will hang you upside down 

and shake the nonsense 

from the pockets 

of your mind.

She will strip your soul naked

leaving you raw and exposed

under the searing glare 

of the gods.

Offer up the holiness

of your confusion 

and questions.

Dress yourself

in fireflies 

and attune your senses

to awe

while you learn the slow seduction

of courting your muse.

Brush the stardust from your wings

and wipe the ocean from your eyes.

Flex your claws

dig your roots deep down

into the fertile earth

and show your fangs.

Gather pollen on your legs

and speak 

in venom

and honey.

Peel back your colonized tongue

and let it hiss

and purr

and growl

and scream.

Do you remember 

how to stalk

as predator 

and how to surrender

as prey?

The Wild will call you back.

The owls know your real name

and will call you

from the darkness of night

to dance under the moon.

Crack your heart open

with your ancestors’ bones

and dance in the ecstasy 

of your love 

and your grief

with flailing limbs

bloody knees 

and mud-stained feet.

Braid mugwort into your hair 

and dream yourself 

awake.

The Wild will call you back.

She will teach you how to die

again and again

and how to die well.

There is no difference 

between your funeral pyre

and your birth canal.

Do not bother 

to try and stop

the bleeding.

Love with the gentleness

and ferocity

of your whole

soft 

tender being.

Feed the spirits

with your beauty 

and sweetness

and ask them to show you

the way home."

Gina Puorro