Poem: The Dark Forest by Kayla Cook

The Dark Forest by Kayla Cook

The Dark Forest

Originally published on this site on Oct. 8, 2020; By Kayla Cook

At midnight many years ago

When I was still a child

I walked along a trail at night

Through old woods dark and wild

That trail I walked, I walked alone

And I never once complained

For the loneliness, it suited me

And within me that solitude reigned

I liked the woods at that late hour

Because I saw myself in their dark depths

Those woods were me, and I was them

We shared a darkness still no one accepts

We liked it quiet as the grave

We liked it dark as blackest night

We liked it when there were none around,

When we were hidden in the shadows, out of sight

Those trees and I, we preferred it that way,

In that stark gloom where shadows roam,

Because no one else would come out at night

And the trees shared secrets unrecorded in any tome

They spoke of things unspeakable

They whispered of dark deeds past

They sang of torture, murder, and betrayal

And showed me how love is rarely allowed to last

They bent their boughs and showed me where

Ropes and wire had left their scars

They unearthed their roots and let me see

The bones that lay beneath those wooden bars

That walk through night taught me much

About life and death and what happens when

One speaks her mind or raises his fist

To those unfair, cruel, and steeped in sin

Knowledge is both a blessing and a curse

And though those without it can fly so very high

So many often find themselves shot down one day—

I never flew as high as they, but all the same, fallen am I