Bramble Heart by Kaila Gallacher

October 3, 2022
Poem name: Bramble Heart Poet name: Kaila Gallacher Poem: lover, come find me at the forest’s edge where cities are silenced by these apprehensive reveries. follow the trail of salt, crushed petals, and thorns on the path I’ve left behind—like the thistles that’ve woven their spines between blades of unassuming grass. come find me between these moments of reverent totality and irreverent fractals. face me with the wild inside that remains. striking chords on wind that never linger longer than your breath or our lips. try to find me. we’re children. playing hide and seek. but a word of warning, be cautious of my bramble heart; wrapped in thorns and thistles pierced by an almost cruel bloom. and if you walk beside me, you will never know where your feet will fall next. moon, I am called to be amidst cosmos | trekking through trees in this shifting ground. I don’t follow straightforward paths. I distrust the well-lit and know the secret of the revealed. I strip my clothes off and seek answers from the wind when I don’t know which direction to grow. when the wind’s north changes in me lover, be ready. keep up. when my eyes turn towards darkening skies, forgive me. I may not be able to check to see if you follow behind. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Kaila Gallacher Kaila Gallacher is a chronically-ill, second-generation Scottish-Canadian writer and poet. Through her work, she explores the realities of chronic illness, trauma, and what it means to find healing through writing and through nature. In her forthcoming chapbook, mo nighean: the universe inside the comma, she demonstrates how pain can be simultaneously accepted and transformed. She has been published in The Trinity Review, Lucent Dreaming, the anthology Force/Fields by Perennial Press, and the anthologies Light, You’ve Gone Incognito, and The Hyphenated Generation by The Soapbox Press.