Come to the Haunted Woods
There is a ghost in the woods, haunting the fringes, rustling the leaves, leaving sorrel heart breadcrumbs. Marked by the scent of touch-me-nots rotting under the chicken coop and wilted clover crowns tied too big, it whispers warnings that the woods will take your pulse, bury you under the moss, replace your veins with roots. It calls for you to step over the barrier between city and tree, nature and nurture, real and imagined, life and death. It begs you to come, come, come play, dance with the ghost in the woods.
There is a girl in the woods There is a boy in the woods
dressed in grass-stained skirts itchweed bumping his arms
and with weed-flowers wilting in her hair. and mosquitos crushed into his palms.
She opens her mouth His knees and elbows are scraped over scars.
and dandelion seed wishes fly out. He climbs trees to find treasure buried in the clouds
Stars trapped in stones clatter in her pockets, and catch sunlight in grass nets
ready to anchor her when the spring floods come Knives stolen from a forgotten kitchen
and crush wild blackberries into purple rust under the moss, saved for throwing practice.
that stains her fingertips and lips. Sorrel and mud stain his breath.
She dances in patches of wild violets He catches toads and garter snakes
and melts them on her tongue. and makes them his friends.
She builds cages from brambles He asks to be your friend,
so no one can rip her free. stick-thin arms opened for embrace.
She bleeds like tears He chases you through the trees,
through thorn-made tears. ripping his skin on brambles and sending
She runs deeper when you try to catch her, touch-me-not pods bursting like grenades.
slipping through your grasping hands He screams for you to hear him,
like rainwater collected in acorn caps. rattling the rusted dog kennel you locked him in.
You want to hold her close He yells his name like it’s yours,
and braid her hair but you can’t hear him over your fear.
and tell her she can cry instead of laugh You tell him he can’t come out
if she wants. because he doesn’t fit your body anymore.
She tells you that she only runs He takes a kitchen knife, cuts your hair, and says,
because you ran from her first. See? Now you fit.