Out of the Woods

For Phil Jr. - I love you and don't ever do this again!


Beneath the lush primeval brush
you wander through the shadowed hush
uncertain how to make it back
to sunny fields alive with plush
sensation.

You hear the sound from all around
this cloistered copse of stippled ground
determined to escape the black
which gnaws your heels like Satan’s hound,
damnation.

Benumbing pain that won’t abstain
then suddenly, the way is plain
lucidity sneaks through a crack
to guide you from the grim domain.
Elation!