Pin Oaks

You knocked and I let you in

Unlocked the door, let you under my skin

But hate lay like a snake in the grass

Waiting to strike at our heels as we passed

She kept the key to my darkroom

She left and warped the weft of my loom

I saw hordes of gray eyes and dark, hungry mouths

Lord knows what they were mumbling about

I lost hold of the rail I was grasping

Ghostly pale, quaking like an aspen

Now this thick rope encircles my neck

Whispered, "I hope you're quick to forget"

Grief warms the back of your throat

Greedy wind snatches at your threadbare coat

Pin oaks and old rusty nails

Pinafores rustle and fill like sails