THE ROAD BEFORE US
Let us travel the road before us
and enter into the mystery of trees.
Let us find the sleeping doe
attentive and aware
of the ever-wolf. I will go
and find kindling. I will set
the fire that will engage us
and carry our heaviest thoughts
upward. Clouds dwindle.
Smoke trails us like a wraith.
I am caught in it. I rise
to the web of bleak branches,
to the very tops of trees.
Tonight leafless trees
are smothered with blackbirds.
This night-smoke
becomes the blackbird
rising to its highest—
Drifting embers smite the moon.
©2011 Clare L. Martin
Clare L. Martin 
Man, wish I could go out to those woods. But every time I do everyone’s always “AAHH MONSTER IN THE WOODS”. Then theres that one redneck jackhole with a shotgun who thinks hes a hero. Ive stayed in urban areas since that incident. My cans in a rent controlled part of Brooklyn these days, and the neighborhoods doing pretty well. Used to be a lot of undesireables around but now celebrities stop by this street. Drew Brees came over last week. Didnt get out to see him. I’m a Lions fan.