Nude Standing Alone in the Forest: A Study of Place

Pattiann Rogers

In this unattached nudity, the certainty
Of her barefeet pressed against the earth-sand-like
Soil under the inner arch, essential pine needle
Beneath the heel, blessed curl of old leaf-must seem
 suddenly
Crucial. Completely unverified flesh from the toes up,
Only the bottoms of her feet can guess
Exactly where they are.

Naked for no one, it's obvious that nothing here,
Not the noise of the wood warblers or the quiet
Of the branch-tip spider or the poised stiffness
Of the herb on which it rests, even in the sunlight,
Takes particular notice of a bare breast. The wind
Doesn't linger, moves steadily to its own places
Among the upper leaves of the poplars no matter what it
 touches
Of her on its way. And even outlined perfectly in white
Against the background of yaupon hedges, the curve
Of her hip and thigh fitting exactly into their spaces
Before the wild grape, her shoulder, as it should, marking
The crucial arch between dogwood and evening,
It's still evident that her body, unacknowledged,
Doesn't belong. Uncaressed flesh by itself has no place
But anywhere.

Within this uncertain location of her unfound state,
Staring up without a mirror, she can imagine
That she is the sky, as easy and open and accessible,
That her abode, therefore, is heaven.
Or she can believe that she is as undemanding
As the egret disappearing without looking back
Over the far shore of the lake, that her habitation,
Therefore, is wing. Or she can close her eyes and dream
That she is the motion in the perfect bud of hyacinth
Slowly opening its blossom between her legs, petal

By petal to its fullest spread, that the only region
Of her desire, therefore, is fantasy.

Yet even without a map it wouldn't be hard for someone
To find her here like this. It wouldn't be hard
For someone to create the center of her as she creates
The focus of the forest which encircles him.
And from beneath the carefully descending darkness
Of someone else, I know she could rise slowly
Above all places like a soft, uncovered moon passing
Through the thickest branches of the evening as if the trees
Had no existence at all. I know she possesses the power
To change every location of the night, if someone could only
Find her inside his own arms right now and discover
Where it is that this is so.