end of the tunnel


the dark shapes of twisted gates in your
road, between rotted trees in stark effusion.

a thin, light thread bound us together, 
the way out of the perilous forest.

night crawled like an earthworm, devouring
and reconstituting your subterranean thoughts.

the signposts - torn into splintered wood.  the bristles
of a wooden brush - smacked into the back of your hand.

your father never showed his face.  did he come to your
funeral, know what you looked like in long hair?

gallows shadowed a noose on your bed, their lines 
marred the clean skin of your sleep.

whose sister came to your wedding?  did she know that 
we were married in another life?

the forest teemed with malevolent energy, each bush a whirling
dervish, each tree a wicked sprite, each leaf a thirsty fairy.