Friday, March 4, 2022

the path between worlds



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.



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