Veins to Vines

There once was a time

when I walked as a man...

Branches breathe sideways,

Calling my name.

Roots break open

Like they want my frame.

Shadows slip inward,

Close around my chest—

Something in the timber

Wants me as a guest.

My pulse goes crooked,

Like it’s not my own—

The forest tastes fear

And turns it into home.

The woods close in when they smell your skin,

But the deeper you run, the more you blend in.

Bark bites gently, needles sink thin—

I’m not just hunted… I’m starting to begin.

Branches lean closer,

Whispering slow—

Not with a threat,

But a place to go.

The ground shifts warm,

Pulls me to my knees—

Something ancestral

Breathing through the leaves.

My bones feel hollow,

Filled with crawling light—

The woods don’t want prey,

They want a new knight.

The woods close in when they taste your fear,

But the moment you yield, they draw you near.

Vines pulse warmer than human skin—

And the forest decides

what’s ready to join in.

Teeth like splinters,

Tongues of moss—

They show me every

Human loss.

“Stop running,” they murmur,

“Stop fearing your kind—

We eat what’s wicked,

But you… you align.”

My breath turns earthy,

Eyes burning bright—

The forest doesn’t hunt me—

It’s giving me sight.

I rise much taller,

Bark on my spine,

Hands turned branches

Hooked into vine.

The monsters that chased me

Bow as they grin—

The woods don’t devour—

They welcome me in.

The woods close in when they feel your call,

Tearing back the veil between man and all.

I’m not the victim the legends spin—

I am the hunger

that moves through the wind.

The woods close in but they’re not my end,

They carved out my fear and made it a friend.

Now runners who enter hear branches begin—

Because I am the shadow

that pulls them in.