Beyond the grey, the trees, and the leaves - benumbed, staggering through the sprawling hills. Oak, bobbing

ashes, curious –

This is but one woven world within a medley of revulsion

A scope unfathomable to the conscious mind

Eaten, willow...

Vines tore me off my feet and under the water again.

Ceaseless echoes of the violent sleep rang through the water, through the forest, away from the scratching

limbs, beneath the forest floor, through the cave, through the cellar, far from home...

Flashes of the hag and the forest became a blur.

All at once, it stopped.

I looked back at the pain with the fondness of an old friend and I turned away.

I looked back at the years with the fondness of an old friend and turned away.

I looked to the bay, to the water.