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The Old Ones Claim

John Kucera

A rainforest changes the man,
it changes the woman.

Some were born with rivers
in their blood. Their ancestors
spoke to raven and bear,
spoke to wolf and otter and black fish,
spoke to salmon and eagle and frog and heron.

You speak to them, too,
and they talk back. Sometimes
you’re close to grasping what they say—
that’s one way the rainforest
changes you.

One day at dusk a bear
walks through the eye
of the camera.
The old ones claim
a man lives inside a bear;
you tell no one
a bear lives inside a man.

There are weeks in the forest
when your whole body is
a word even you can’t utter
but the trees, in their
deep listening,
hear.

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