Dreamscape

I walk out to climb the trees at dark. I listen to them sway. I taste their bark. Despite the weather, they stick together. They watch each other live and die. They're silently kind but I still act shy. I take a place in the tallest one. I thank the tree and wait for the sun. I think about the future and the before. I think about the ghosts that keep knocking on my door. I don't want to see them. I want to dream them away.  I can no longer help them. There's nothing else for me to say because I'm no longer sorry. I want them to decay. They lay down and cry on the bathroom tile. Tearless eyes with upside down smiles. They cry for the home land but you can't make a movement without taking a stand. The night is always darkest before dawn. The record isn't over until you've heard the last song. 

Up in the branch, I slip into a dream about twilight in August and banshee screams. Coming through the twilight is a yeti with teeth like razors and long fur like spaghetti. Maybe it won't see me if I get real still but I stick out like a plane crashing into a hill. It scoops me up with one single fist. It exhales in streams of mist. I recount the moments that led up to this. I came to the forest to clear my head. To forget about the friendships I had left for dead. I didn't want to pick out caskets or attend the wake. I wanted to celebrate and eat birthday cake. I didn't feel grief. I didn't feel guilt. I didn't feel attached to anything I built. In its claw, the yeti pulls me closer to its jaw. I see the ghosts waving because I must not be worth saving.

Now awake, back in the tree. The ghosts are no longer looking for me. They walk to the horizon with backs turned. All the old bridges have been burned. I ponder the lesson I've learned. Not until the sun has risen do I realize that the worst can be forgiven because good people do bad things and bad people do good things. You just have to get it right before your swan sings. I climb down from the tree and thank it for its safety. For cradling me in its arms like I was its baby. I pick up the pace to catch up with the ghosts but they've disappeared once I've cleared the forest and reach the coast. Maybe they've gone to Avalon. When you expect the worst, anything else feels like the best.