Life is But a Mirage

I snapped a twig under my foot
In the silence of a virgin wood
And all hell broke loose
Like Pandora's box had come to life
Okay maybe it wasn't hell
But mighty it sure wasn't fine
Deer dropped their mouthfuls of leaves, frozen in time,
As I watched the foxes skulk away with their tails between their legs
Suddenly all the leaves began to plunge as if to rescue that twig
Insignificant as it was they all seemed to be wanting to save it
As they slowly gathered around, all around my feet
And soon enough the leaves unable to resuscitate
Began to wither away
And the snow like a great friend
Came to bury that twig in snow
As a proper coffin for a life well lived and a death well dealt
Everything shrunk away even the sun hid under the cold
And too late I realized the world has buried me in snow too
I am shoulder deep in a shroud of white, suffocating, oh goodness, drowning
But I haven't got up
Oh I haven't climbed out
So I dig through the white, yes I fight through the snow
To look for that twig far below my feet
But there is no twig here and I cannot pull free
For what had snapped under my feet
What the world had buried, was actually me.

-anna sluder

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