Banyan Thorns - Earth Beneath The Spirit (alternate version)

Spirits in the loam… Whispers in the rot… I do not fear the hollow places. I speak where others bury silence. I broke the bread of bone and bark Laid it in the compost dark Wrapped in roots and wax and thread A prayer for all the leaves that bled Ash from lips, and salt from skin I plant my grief, I call it kin The body bends, the soil drinks deep And what I lose, the fungi keep Lay me down in the loam and leave me Cover my name in moss If I return, I return as breathing If I don’t—I’m still not lost A spiral carved into a stump Guides the soul when bones go numb Oak-leaf eyes and muddy palms The world unravels into calm I gave my blood to feed the spores I blessed the flies behind the doors I am not holy, I am not clean I am the rot that grows the green Hollow root, take back your child Cover my thoughts in leaves gone wild Mourn me not in light or flame But in silence, soil, and sacred rain The fire is not above—it’s under Beneath the mulch where gods still slumber And if I’m gone, then let it be With compost rites and canopy Rot me down to the sacred breath Let me bloom in the arms of death I don’t need heaven, I don’t need names The forest remembers what silence claims Rot me down to the sacred breath Let me bloom in the arms of death I don’t need heaven, I don’t need names The forest remembers what silence claims I am the hush beneath your heel… The soil that listens… The grief that grows… The hollow root spiral that turns below…