Day 749 – The way into the woods (Kennedy)

Day 749 of the Daily Poems.  Your Editor finds both a way in and a way out at the entrance to the woods.

The way into the woods

the world changed
    at the entrance to the woods 
a fleeting sun challenged the dark
of the wet leaves underfoot
    they shone
    with a glaze of dew

the woods smelled sweet
    a perfumed fragrance
all around as the rumour
of a train swelled up from
    the cutting below me
    and I stumbled

along the narrow tracks
    snared by brambles
that caught my arms and shoulders
a wood-pigeon clapt its wings
    to blunder away
    amidst the branches

a breeze was rising 
    with the insistence
of a coming storm
the trees clattered above
    and a cool freshness
    chilled the air

as the sky darkened
    omens and portents
snaked their way
through the tangle of briars
    and I turned to make my escape
    by the way out of the woods

Peter Ualrig Kennedy