Taught to surrender
Forced to submit
By a raised hand
Threatening to hit
I wait and I wait
For someone to come
Tell me what to do
And call me dumb
I may have escaped
Times may have changed
But the mentality stayed
I live life numb
And play dead
Waiting for someone to come
To ruin my day
I pray and I pray
Ah Lord why
Am I attacked in the night
By visions and fright
Is it because during the day
I forget to walk in the light?
I feel disarmed
Yet still forced to fight
Enduring the strife
With an aching mind
And a knife in my back
For the horrors of sight
Which I witnessed in plight
Do grind me down
Yet I ain't blind
I'll be all right
For I am kind
And compassionate to others...

I need time to unwind

Sadness always takes
By surprise.
Enveloping with its
Heavy, languid
breath.

Bitter wine pours
Through the exhausted body.
Leaving scarlet traces
From its sharp needles.

In the forest black,
Where Grimm tales stand alive,
The sun shines upon the forest floor.
Covered in the dead
Rotting to feed life,
An ode of decay that smells fresh,
Of pine, oak, lavender and elderberry.

Late summer kisses the leaves,
Leaving a brittle leaf,
Fading yellow and wishing their trees sweet release.
Tall massive trunks reach out to the sky,
Like children asking for a parents embrace
How they creak when the sky ruffles them with breeze.

The mushrooms feast,
Offering those who dare to stop and eat,
A host of certainties,
A full belly, death, or a visit to divinity
An ecstasy of colorful soliloquy,
The forest gods smile you see.

Willow leaves, twisted vines
And whispering trees
Sing of Fall and Spring,
Knowing their ghosts will rise,
Come Allerseelen the forest will exhale,
With misty tide,
Cyclic rhythm will beat
Of death, life, and all in between.