Reactivated

The Horrible Forest

Reactivated

i

children hang along a tree-lined street.
faint footsteps on pine needles.
thumps, over stumps, so low —
bleakly, sometimes faintly.
shuffles repeat. groans. more suffering.

the children swing deeply into the branches.
time to hide. quick — to a place without life.
the beast of the earth was released.
a time of darkness befalls the community.

ii

the town is now a forest.
communion has been rare.
at the popular lake shore,
picnics no longer.

mourning sounds permeate the wind.
familiar voices; it is a requiem.
for one hundred years,
they have loved and shared
from afar, in fright.

now, their cocked hats hide their eyes.
lingering chaos severed many ties,
for words could not unravel paranoid lies.
voices of neighbors, no longer recognized.
there’s a pain in their middles —
famished? hollow?
no, just empty.

iii

after each  is renamed,
no more elemental silence.
sagging, swollen monotony
replaced by a dignified pattern of sound.
roots melted, beneficence revived.
developed from dirt, but not dirty —
they are crystals waiting to be polished.

far-off fringe of dawn floods in unfixed flashes.
some long to lock limbs.
others require un-regimented rearrangements.
autonomous potential that was buried away,
once more shall breed accomplishment.

they roll and crawl forward and
once more, become capable of
merriment, humanity and fellowship:
reawakening civilization.

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Hear this on chirbit

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Written for:

POETICS: THE ANECDOTE

Image credits: The Horrible Forest by *pesare on deviantart