We came from everywhere.
Flat roads where families ate together
and across the Pacific with streets
even more infested than here.

We were many animals.
Some panting and some striding
with feet both bare
or covered, living in a mass
of personality and disorder.
Some popping mind-candy, most
swallowing music.
And we weren’t afraid.
We could find home or a glimpse of the world
with one climb of a Red Wood.

We had many visitors in visors
with their many mouths agape.
The beauty, the sea glass,
the courage, the dirt…

They were always ready to leave.

It was a mad forest, untamed
in all of its glory.

-- Ashley Warren