"Needed" Inspired by The Poison Season:

Needed

We need the forest.

The forest protects us.

In thanks,

we sing

we sacrifice,

we bleed.

Blood is swallowed up

by the forest.

Sometimes blood isn’t enough,

and it snatches

a rabbit hopping through,

a bird flying overhead,

a neighbor that speaks out.

Our customs and ceremonies

revolve around this forest,

this forest that

saved our ancestors.

We’ve been here ever since.

We know no other way.

But we are safe here.

We take care of the forest,

and it takes care of us.

Until we try to leave.

The forest fights back.

The forest traps us here.

The forest reveals the truth:

the forest needs us.


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