forest from the fires

"You could leave: Save the forest from the fires, go to sleep beneath the trees and swallow your desires, your desires...." - Alexa Woodward, "Swallow" from album "An Early Dream"

She walked out into the piney woods, the same trails winding into the shadows and scattered light that she knew when she was seven years old.  That Thanksgiving she and her cousin hiked into the woods, alongside the creek, getting their shoes soaked. They climbed over fallen tree trunks that made natural bridges.  She found a big oak tree with root growth like tiny hills under her feet.  Her cousin kept hiking and sloshing through the creek, but she wanted to stop here.  Let's stay here.  But I want to know what's ahead... Come on, let's go see.  So they kept going, watching out for snakes.  She never thought about ticks and spiders or even leeches.  Sometimes the creek water would be up to their knees, and other times they tramped alongside the crooked edge staying clear of poison ivy.  But since that Thanksgiving day she had not been allowed into the woods.  She and her cousin had hiked 2 miles away from home and onto someone's property, possibly even hunting land.   She hasn't been home in a long time and she wonders if the tree with root hills still stands.  The limbs were grand and wide, probably a southern red oak, and she had felt awe there, a fire of warmth and desire that she swallowed when her cousin wanted to continue hiking for more adventurous places.  Ever since then she has been swallowing desire, suffocating forest fires that smolder in her breast when she feels awe.