Solitude

<sub>I came about a most uncomfortable position
Meandering through the wood
Upon where I met myself;
For I was indeed the trees, and thought it safe to play among them...

...Lying tree, hideous tree
With its behemoth tangles around my head and its gaping mouth about my heart
"I shall eat of it," it hissed. "Should you not follow me."
The devils of the wood ran about my heels, hissing and jeering as the tree lumbered forth, his great girth a-creaking;
"Prisoner, prisoner! From whence your own mind are you held; a cage, a cage of your own."

Surely the thick masque of trickling wood was sure to stifle my cries
For, upon opening my mouth, naught but weeds meditated off my tongue
Trickling 'round my neck in the fashion of a noose
And binding my eyes, so I could no longer see.
"Behold she who can no longer cry! No hope shall come in these thickets, brambles, strictures of what you have allowed--see how they pierce the flesh and thin the blood; so you shall waste, a drowned maiden among your empty heart."

I tried but borne no tears;
Twisted, but loosened no bonds;
Screamed but it was a mere eidolon-- away in the bareness of my...

"And surely you shall forget what it is in time; both in death and existence. The land will eat of your flesh and drink of your blood; mind rots and spirit wastes here, and you shall be left barren among the mists."
His crooked fingers twitched about my bonds, releasing them;
The demons trickled from the trees and began a savage chant;
of death, of damnation, calling me their sister.

Disturbed, I turned to the tree;
Aghast, afraid, but still with a dying ember of hope
For so be his many evils, he was still myself; and in his wrinkled soul surely laid--?

"Mercy? I think not."

And with a deft gesture he tore out my blackened heart.
[poem by me]</sub>