The Forest Where
Nothing Stays

There was a silver bowl of daylight
Resting where the shadows bloom
And the air began to shimmer
Like a curtain in the room

A quiet taste of golden weather
Drifted in without a name
Then the walls forgot their edges
And the ceiling felt the same

Something turning in the corner
Something glowing through the haze

And the colors started breathing
While the distance slipped away
Every shape began to soften
Like the morning in the rain

I heard a glass sing in the darkness
Saw the floor begin to rise
And the moonlight in the window
Wore a pair of borrowed eyes

There was no door, but I went through it
There was no road, but I arrived
All the echoes moved in circles
Like they’d always been alive

I left the silver bowl behind me
But it followed me somehow
And the room kept gently changing
Even after I was out

I stepped where there was no direction
Still the ground gave way beneath
Every second stretched like silence
Every breath forgot to leave

There were numbers in the distance
But they drifted out of line
All the hours lost their meaning
Every moment felt like mine

Something pulling without motion
Something calling without sound

Down where the clocks don’t follow
Nothing moves the way it should
Every tick becomes a whisper
Lost inside the drifting wood

I saw shadows falling sideways
Watched the sky begin to bend
All the edges turned to questions
With no start and with no end

I was falling without moving
I was moving standing still
All the space around me folded
Like it always had the will

Foot on the threshold
Light splits in two
One of them opens
None of them you

Open it, close it
Open it more
Every direction
Turns to a door

Knocking from nowhere
Handles that breathe
Rooms made of distance
Nothing to leave

Open it, close it
Open it more
Every direction
Turns to a door

I run through the hallway
It runs through me
Each time I choose one
It splits into three

There was a shape in the corner
Not a shape…
Something that remembered being one

Smile without a face
Smile without a face

It leans
It waits
It knows the space

The walls breathe in
The walls breathe out
No one speaks
But something shouts

You’re not looking at it
It’s looking at you

Smile without a face
Watching every place

Closer
Closer
Not by steps

Turn around
Turn around
Turn around
(not that way)

Every shadow bends toward me
Every silence has a sound
Every thought I try to leave
Is already all around

You’ve been here longer than you think

Smile without a face
Never leaves a trace
Still it takes your place

It stays
It stays
It stays…

It sees without eyes
It hears without ears

Step in the shade

The shade steps back

Leaves like mirrors
Turning slow
Paths that double
Where you go

Name the color

It names you

Every branch remembers
Every root decides

Footfalls counting
Not your own
Breath returns
With a different tone

Watch the watcher
Mark the mark
Light grows louder
In the dark

Turn once
Turn twice
The path learns you

It sees without eyes
It speaks in your voice

Steps keep time
Time keeps none
The forest listens
You become one

Instrumental — sans paroles.

I heard it once
But not from where I stood

(Behind you)
(Inside you)

Every word arrived too early
Every echo came too late
I was speaking in a circle
Something else would translate

Say it again
Say it again
Say it—

No sound
Only shape
Only movement in the air

It was closer when I turned away
Further when I stayed
Each direction held a version
Of the sentence never said

(Here)
(There)
(Everywhere)

Her voice in every direction
No center, no reflection
Her voice in every direction
Calling without intention

Answer it
Ignore it
It answers you the same

Don’t turn around
Don’t turn around
(turn around)

I followed just to lose it
I lost it just to hear
It spoke before I knew it
It stayed when I was clear

(Here)
(There)
(Not there)

You never heard it start

Rules were written
After the move

Turn taken
Not by you

Step to the left
It changes the floor
Step to the right
It asks for one more

You play the piece
It plays you back

Move it forward
Move it through
Every choice
Undoes you

Win the circle
Lose the line

Hands rearranging
Without a plan
Every direction
Moves where it can

No board
No space
No final place

You almost had it

Move it forward
Move it through
Every answer
Splits in two

One last move—

The lines came back in pieces
But none of them aligned
I followed every echo
It led me out of time

It starts to turn
It starts to burn

Folding back into yesterday
Every road learns how to bend
Folding back into yesterday
Where the ending starts again

The shapes return with meaning
Then change before they stay
I speak in older answers
They answer in a way

It climbs inside the moment
It names me as I move

Folding back into yesterday
Every road learns how to bend
Folding back into yesterday
Where the ending starts again

I saw tomorrow breaking
Inside a borrowed past
The mirror kept on turning
Until it faced me last

Again
Again
Again it comes around

Folding back into yesterday
Every road learns how to bend
Folding back into yesterday
Where the ending starts again

Again.

There was a room I recognized
Though I had never seen the door
The light was sitting where it used to be
But it felt different than before

Still there
Still the same

I took a breath to leave it all
It followed somewhere in between
A quiet taste I couldn’t place
Still moving through what I had seen

The taste that never left
The sound that never stayed
It lives in every moment now
It waits inside the day

I set the glass beside the light
It looked the way it always did
But something underneath the surface
Knew exactly what it hid

It stayed
It stayed

The taste that never left
It never had to stay
It moves through every version
Of what I call today

There was a silver bowl of daylight
Resting where the shadows bloom

And the air began to shimmer