Tiptoeing Through the Tulgey Wood

I instruct myself on being more frightened

Of the deepening darkness and rollicking silence

Yet all my words of sage advice seem to wearily echo

Through the dense gathering, a mirrored hall of trees

Infinite brush as far as the knees can bee

I tiptoe through swarms of fluttering heartbeats

The tittering clouds of panicked snickering

Lure me merrily from the path of lucidity

Faces I forgot to remember, looming

Grimacing in lightning hollows

Cheeks puffing at my lack of recognition

Humming the lullaby of the Jabberwocky

Monotone notes droning, clouding my eyes

Confusing the ground for the sky

The closer I feel I may be creeping to the edge

The deeper I seem to be traipsing instead

Skipping this way, then galumphing on back

I feel tart cherry tears sliding, glazed, and slick

If no one’s there to see the bloody mess

Did they really redden my face and dress?

Looking down, sapphire transitioned to ruby distress

An intoxicated larva with delusions of grandeur

Preached the way to preserve my bobbling sphere

Lop off the top of every painted thorn bush

Burn the thickets infested with serpents and cackling puss

Leering and jeering, in every snare for miles

With no ax or rake, and no lit torch I bow

Head nestled neatly ‘twixt my feet

Woods left in tact, décollation long complete

K.B. Silver