Forest
Anonymous
Mother Tree
On a day that wandered far off the maxim of time, in a forest that is yet old enough to decide on its name, frolicked a person. They were post-their prime, covered their roundness in plaid, and secured their jeans with suspenders. They were in search of nothing and they forgot each of their steps as a consequence of the subsequent step. The Old Person stood on two legs, and of all the creatures on the ground, they were the only one to do so.
Eventually, the path of shade led them to the center of the forest. The Old Person may have failed to understand the significance of their positionality, but awed at the physical marker that occupied the heart: Mother Tree. Mother Tree was the largest figure in the forest, its branches shaded widely, and its trunk was strong and tall, yet avoided the phallic.
Under Mother Tree, The Old Person found two growing people, resting on their backs smiling and laughing. The Old Person approached the growing people, and through their action the Old Person made the growing people cry. The growing people were unable to defend themselves against The Old Person. This made The Old Person happy and powerful, and in their domination they found conviction. Conviction allowed him to bear the title “The Old Man” and to chop the lesser trees for wood. Mother Tree was safe, only since he swore she bore a face, one that would soon be The Old Man’s religion.
Using conviction, The Old Man deemed it his right to build a house on the grounds he now named “Man Land.” In his structure, he dug a cellar, far deep into “Man Land,” where the only sources of light were “Man Sun” and oxygen existed exclusively through “Man Air.” This cellar will home the two growing people and will be the sole space for their education.
He gives each growing person a package, distinctly labeled “Girl 1” and “Girl 2.” In it was all they would need to navigate their livelihood, most importantly was a book labeled “The Constitution of the State of Man,” which included all the rules they would have to follow and the corresponding punishment if failed to do so. Some highlighted convictions include: “He elects the cellar as “Base-Men’t”: the base of those that aren't men,” and “He elects Gender and State as the strongest materials in Man Land.”
The two growing people were now referred to as “Girl 1” and “Girl 2,” with titles as high priestesses of the Tree of Man. They were never to leave Base-men’t or argue with The Old Man. They were content in stillness. Until, on the third day in the month of the penis. The day they followed the mouse through the walls of the cellar.
They fell into a land of pure green, and were surrounded by an infinite number of mice.
“Where do you hail from? What are you?” collectively inquired the mice.
“The State of Old Man,” the growing people replied, “We are Girl One and Girl Two”
“Enlighten us on your identities, what makes you girls?”
“That is what the Old Man said,” answered the growing people respectfully, curiously adding: “Where are we? And What are you? Girls or Men?”
“The Land!” the mice meow back in unison. “We outlasted gender, only a few millennia after we abolished the Carceral State”
“But if we abandon gender and state what do we have left?” Replied the Girls in confusion.
“Everything else! We have our indigeneity and infinite axes of identity!”