Night Forest

When I was little I clenched my mother’s hand
too timid to let go


It was just us in a snow globe, that’s how small we were

Two delicate figures in the center, enveloped by striped ??????? trees

and falling snow and forest

anyone could shake it at any moment
I had to hold on tight


I remember tracing over her steps a pace or two behind

Our feet sculpting the pristine snow

like a potters hands gently shaping clay in all the right places

To create an elaborate pattern

But not really thinking about where to bend the clay next, just knowing

Big prints

little prints
Big prints

And that became the pattern


It was just us in a snow globe, that’s how small we were

2 delicate figures in the center, enveloped by striped ??????? trees

and falling snow and forest

anyone could shake it at any moment

I had to hold on tight


The moons light bounced off the snow

like a rubber ball bouncing off the pavement

illuminating my frightened face for all to see

For all the owls and ???????s and for whomever may shake the snow globe


Finally we stopped walking, there was no real destination after all

We stopped just because we felt like it

Just to stop, and take a moment to breath
a moment to look up at the night sky and take in the untouched beauty of this forest

and see the stars and the moon and the snow making a blanket over the ground
And I realized that the stars were splendid, superb, almost supernatural

And at that moment I chose to look back for the first time
and this time I wasn’t afraid of looking back, afraid of spotting somebody following us
but I saw something
An endless path of footprints
Big prints
little prints
Big prints