Dreamcatchers

 The pounding of a drum,

Spirits howling in the branches,

Ferrous taste

Of cracked lips,

And creeping ether

Flood the forest

Where that pilgrim,

Befell by hunger,

Surrounded by poison fruit,

Wanders his last.

 

Through the shadow then breaks

A shining, youthful, elven queen,

Tall with porcelain skin,

Radiant emerald eyes,

And a steed of virgin snow.

Her soft, cold hand takes his,

Compels him to walk,

Weak beyond hope,

He trusts her comforting lead

And the regal gait of her beast.

 

But in the light of the moonbeam,

Fought through the skeletal boughs,

He sees his hand now trapped by icy bone,

Fire in the holes of the skull before him

And nothing living where soft beauty had adorned.

At once Death let loose her terrific screech,

Bats flying from her mouth,

As she dropped him,

Letting his corpse sink

Through the heavy mud below.

***

(Minneapolis, MN -- September, 2018)

There's a really great song called "Dreamcatchers" by a singer named Odetta Hartman that inspired this poem. While the lyrics don't really relate, the song has this haunting, folksy, throwback vibe that makes me feel like I'm delirious and lost in the woods, being visited by a specter coming to take me from this plane of existence.