Shifting Wilderness

shallow pools of stagnant water slick wet fallen leaves tissue turned to pulp frigid earth shuddering trees black fissure branches in the fog spurs and stones cloaked in moss freezing rain turns to sleet as the temperature drops I can’t stop I need to reach that forsaken cabin my family left me it’s been years since these paths were cleared can’t see what’s right in front of me but I feel that it’s near its moldering facade porch boards caving in windows covered with bloodied butcher paper aging newsprint crossing the threshold into a backwoods slaughterhouse saws, cleavers, gambrels taxidermy mounts one window exposed a pane framed in rot crystalline reflections fractured in the frost outside a whiteout rids the land of contours and shadows the darkest features hold their form trapped in the cabin by drifting snow pull the antlers down from the mantel to dig through the drift a futile endeavor snow keeps on falling cold settling in close the door before it cannot be shut stuck halfway between illusions of safety the ability to stay the choice to leave I arrived with the intent to put the structure to flame strike a match against my palm set it in the fireplace sifting through cinders won’t get me through this bitter winter storm kneeling on the hearth ‘neath the patchwork roof in this crude refuge drawing warmth to a fever broken with steam gripping the iron hooks no longer suspending sprawling life behind and before me branches gleaming white paths of cracking ice shimmering glades vapor ascending the relics of my past restraints and blades rusting in a rotting shack into the shifting wilderness free from these crumbling confines I will persist