Smell of the Forest

by Heather Carnaghan

Missing you is a physical ache deep in my chest;
It’s a heaviness that bends my spine
and burdens every step.

Is there something deeper,
truer
than “I love you”
that a mother can tell her child?

I love the smell of the forest.
I love the taste of a raspberry
plucked sun-warm from my grandfather’s garden.


But you,
you are a need in my soul
that “I love you” can’t explain.

What words hold in them
every breath I breathe?