Will you follow me on this path
between worlds?
I gesture to where the grass has been worn down
by the feet of generations.
You say, it's just the trail behind the school -
it comes out by the plaza with the pizza shop
and the liquor store where the kids try to shoplift booze
if they can't con someone into buying it for them -
Not now, I say, not at this moment, I say,
as the sun retreats leaving the last gentle gold
of a summer day drifting along the horizon
You take my hand and we step past the crushed soda bottle
as if it were a guardian
and we pass into the darkening wood -
you look back for a moment and feel
the trees close behind us -
we walk and become aware -
the sound of tires and doors and shouts faded away
while we were not listening -
you draw a bit closer
and I say, it's going to be ok
even as the branches come close
It's too dark - I can't see you, you say -
it's cold.
and now we stand still and I close my eyes,
breathing in mud from the last storm,
mulched leaves, and the fresh growth -
This is what was needed -
it's not dark, I say -
see now the faerie lights - look through my eyes -
and you see it too -
dim, but enough that we step toward a clearing -
it's not cold - feel with my hands the radiating fire
and I hold out my hands to the center of things
and you do as well -
now you are telling me about the magic -
all around us the holly draped and woven with the ivy -
we see it together, hands likewise held.
