Alexis David
The Walled Forest
—after David Baker’s “Can You Say It”
There was a calling. Yes, the winter leaves. They were calling me—
sparrows, soil, the blue tones of light and a rhododendron tree.
It was a calling, yes, a calling, inside of me.
The day progressed from two to three.
We asked, wondering, if soon—
how could it possibly be?
I could be not just me, but two. But, three?
(forgive me for wanting so much)
I was a woman dancing, a Chanel scent, a daisy opening, a romance (inside of me).
The tiny cells, the petals, both calling and colliding:
as if I were a (mother)
as if I could ever believe myself to be.
Originally published in MER 22 (2024).
Alexis David is a poet and fiction writer who holds an MFA from New England College. Dancing Girl
Press published her chapbook The Names of Animals I Have Loved. Currently, she is revising a chapbook,
which Tupelo Press distinguished as one of Extraordinary Merit. Additionally, she has placed reviews of
poetry for Tupelo Quarterly, North of Oxford, Compulsive Reader and The Masters Review. Links to her
other published work can be found at alexisldavid.wixsite.com/alexis.