The Body of the Forest
Poem
by Gordan Struić
the forest has lungs
older than breath.
they expand
with moss-thick silence,
exhale in birdless echoes.
i once slept
against its ribs —
wet bark pressed to my back
like a palm
forgetting how to hold.
roots rise like undone stitches
from the bruised earth,
threads that do not
carry anything anymore
except memory
and insects.
every branch is a gesture
i failed to understand —
warnings, maybe,
or welcomes
delivered too late.
it never asked
who i was.
it still doesn’t.
About the Author
Gordan Struić is a Croatian poet based in Zagreb. His work explores silence, rejection, and inner contradiction through compact, emotionally resonant forms. His poems appears or is forthcoming in 34th Parallel, Voidspace, Beyond Words, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Prosetrics Magazine, among others. He holds degrees in law and political science and uses poetry as a form of self-excavation.