Girl in the weeds
a fairy circle
crabgrass, dandelion, and chickweed.
The harsh carcass of her body grew goldenrod
bones of pure gold
human dust print on the forest floor
what is the earth if not but a grave?
Eyelids closed, eyes eaten by larvae, corpse keepers
true love’s kiss
teeth pilfered by a team of mice
baubles, trinkets, forest treasure
carpal bones by curious red deer, hair by turkey vulture in
search of nest fillings. Sanctuary found in the dip of her pelvis
bone by a small snowshoe hare.
She was a gift to the soil.
Skin dislodged from bone, shedded
transforming, a caterpillar of the forest’s making
nutrients from burst capillaries
watering the earth. Wildflowers split from seedling.
Originally published by Flora Fauna Magazine, 2024.
Ashling Meehan-Fanning is a poet and writer whose work often includes themes of magic, ancestry, and the American Midwest. Her collection COLOSSAL GIRL was self-published in January 2021. Her works appears or is forthcoming in Gotham Literature, the Galway Review, Elixir Verse, Roi Faineant Literary Press, and elsewhere. Her poem “Cottage at Ballintemple” was read on The Poet Heroic, and her poem "Grown in the Garden" was given honorable mention by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets in October 2026.
She lives in Wisconsin with her wife and spends a lot of time thinking about ghosts and trees.
