Walking in the deepening shadows of the trees

My head bowed, focus on my pressing feet

I do dare not to look ahead

The forest’s silence fills with rushing

The river is calling me in

Will I stay in the descending shade

Or push myself into the fluorescence

I bait myself with hopes of reckoning

To find peace in such a crisis

As I approach the raging waters

They whisper of fate and solace

Yet I know they offer only an ending

Examining the rugged span of land beside me

A thought invades my mind

The loneliness of this time is sickening

This inner victim hungers for a witness

Which brings me to glance upwards

There, across the great expansion

Stands a figure shrouded in blackness

She is still with her gaze on me

She gives me weakness and yet wonder

From so far away I can see her so clearly

As she raises her hand in judgement

Instead of guiding me into the frozen river

Her frail fingers aim beyond me

I turn to search for an unexpected companion

But there is nothing but the forest trail

The water carries a hushed command

A solemn order to go back

I press my hand up to her image

In the instant the figure shatters

Her frame dissipates into many darkened corners

My life is spared once more from impediment

By some existence I cannot verify

As I turned back to the path

Some unknown piece of me awakened