Cold winter afternoon,
Heading to my friend’s,
Down to the woods,
Ghost hunting again.

Deep into the ravine,
Feeling strange,
Like being watched,
From away.

“Split up,”
“Farther that way?”
Alone I see it,
A beautiful woman in the creek.

I called out,
She looked at me,
Then faded.
A ghost,
I swear I saw.

the mists have returned
to this ancient wood
what a time to light up
a cigarette or two
and pretend like nothing's changed
and nothing ever changes
make myself believe
that on the filter i don't taste her lips
and in the mist her eyes
glancing back and forth
her lips around my cigarette
her eyes around my secret sorrow
and my body
and everything i ever was
in the woods i am collapsing
my body twitches
and i decompose
the nicotine has done me in
i swear it was the nicotine
i swear

Hopscotch
Sasquatch
Let me see
Let me smell

Walk,
Run,
Fly through my pain
Who cared once

I am but none
Dizzy, as the world
Shaking, as our edifice
Let me hold, Caris, on fiery arms

By nothing I’d swear
If by the love I feel
Like electricity
A shock to life, and my engines are quiet

I’ve burnt my fuel
Rather, it’s been burned by others
I gather wood before
Only a few musty branches

But you, I find
Deep in the dark night of the woods
By a huge, dry oak
“Would you like some?”

I can’t tell
If you can’t chop it on your own
Or you want to share it with me
But I could use an oaken heart

To burn together
To make a fire of wonders
To warm up the night
To cuddle, rest our lips together

Where does the road
In the forest go
How many fires will we light
How many nights will we lay together

Maybe the forest will be
A kind home with you
Or maybe we’ll exit
And find a riviera of gold

Wherever we are
Wherever we go
I’m glad to share the fire
I’m glad to share our selves

There is music, coming from afar
Can you hear it?

That first, frosty, autumn morn
I ventured out into the woods.

It was crisp and cold,
My breath hung momentarily in the air.

The trees had shed their leaves In the windy days
And were now carpeting the forest floor.

My first step onto the russet and gold carpet
Crunched so satisfyingly and each step the same.

I set off at a brisk pace,
Leaves crackling and rustling underfoot; so pleasing to the ear.

I continued my walk across this golden carpet
Accompanied by the leaves’ susurration

And remembrances of childhood,
Playing amongst the fallen leaves.

15 years later, and we came back
the same creaking door announced our arrival
wood paneling and deer antlers seemed to remember us
the same way we started to remember them
six bunk beds and wooden shelves
where I used to put my radio and listen at night
the same key chains hanging from the light strings
we sat at the same wooden table
and put together that circular puzzle that has never left my mind
we went to the river and ran in bare feet
with the same fear of snakes as we did way back then
we sat 17 around the table and ate supper
and did the dishes with boiling water
we played Dutch blitz and card games
and always took someone else with us to the outhouse
we pumped that same water out of the same red pump
and the water had black flecks like it always used to
we all lined up and jumped off the rock in the same order as always
"my name is Bethany and I'm 22"
we hopped in the truck bed and went deer spotting at night
and remembered why we were scared of bears
and I remembered how much I miss being around my sisters
I slept on the top bunk with my sister
and she didn't stick her legs under my back like she always did
we climbed up to the fire tower
and rubbed leaves on our yellow jacket stings
I wish there was a natural remedy for nostalgia
when we left, they ran to the road to say goodbye
like they always did before
and my heart felt like some of it didn't leave with me
it took 15 years, but I came back

not being afraid is the most frightening of all
I can't hear, can't see anything past the campfire glow
bare skin warmed by the crackles of your voice
no howling wolves, no shadows in the trees
you could pull a blade behind me,
and I wouldn't flinch
shocked and bleeding, lying there
I might deserve it
just because I wasn't paying attention

Is a poem not just a song
with rhyming verse
that’s not yet sung?

With repeated chorus
not yet stuck
inside one’s head,
amongst the muck?

Is a poem not just a song?
A daisy chain of verse
not yet strum

around a fire
among some friends
deep in the woods
on away weekends.

Is a poem not just a song
not yet proclaimed
by a choir’s tongue?

But uttered silently
in a bed-lamp’s light
at early hours
of the night.

Is a poem not just a song
that peacefully rests
in black ink upon

a white page
inside a book,
upon a library shelf
until it’s took?

Is a poem not just a song
quietly set to lips
that read along

on a train,
on the way back home
from visiting gran
for tea and a scone?

Is a poem not just a song
unset to keys
and not yet begun?

Not yet major,
and not yet minor.
Just metered in beats
and little other.

Is a poem not just a song?
I suppose it could be
but not this one.