Into The Woods

Every day of my life

The bark of old oaks have whispered to me

From just beyond the garden fence

Somewhere out there

The paths and trees go on for miles

Near streams running blue and deep

Creatures roaming wild and free

An oddly calming mix of chaos and peace

Every time I have given in to their temptations

The particles around me glitter in anticipation 

As I grip their mossy wrinkled hands

Pulling me into the familiar unknown

I have felt like I could make it my home

There’s a hiding place somewhere out there

Humming with electric magic in the air

(Hidden in my ten-year-old mind)

That I once decorated with flowers and reeds

Where I folded a love note I wrote to myself 

Inside the trunk of a tree 

and never found again 

I like to think it absorbed the paper into itself

A long lost child returning home

Or someone found it and felt seen

There’s a tree in the field behind my house

That the older kids would climb every summer

I never could or I was too embarrassed

Until one day I made the climb

And made it my home 

I have since written many a poem

Nestled safely between the branches

Each leaf holds my childhood dreams