Portal

A poem.

I was wandering the woods with
my eyes down when I stepped
over a feather on the spongy earth.

I felt a whisper blow down
from between her branches.
Going on about something of mystical worth.

“You, there! The one who is lost now.
Peer my sacred hollow.”
I leaned in, “What is this? A portal of re-birth?”

“Inhale my sweet vanilla scent,”
she laughed warmly, “breathe deep.”
I breathed her sweet perfume of vanilla and earth.

The feather, embraced by a breeze,
fluttered about my legs
before rising higher, in a twirling dance of mirth.

I reached for it, much too slowly.
It danced through the hollow.
The feather simply vanished from that time forth.

“Where did the feather go?” I asked.
“To fulfill its destiny,”
said the tree, “flightless until it affirmed its worth.”

“Do you think…I am worthy too?”
I asked unsteadily.
Please don’t say no, please don’t say yes, I pleaded back and forth.

“Oh, yes! Yes!” sang my beloved tree,
“peer my sacred hollow.
Behold the magic of your destiny henceforth!”

I peered into her sacred portal.
But all that I would see
was an old nest resting on a mound of dark earth.

I could no longer hear the tree.
Blind was my faith in me.
I turned and wandered off as dusk caressed the earth.
 


 
 •MH•  2015 ©Michelle Hedgecock  
(Image: Michelle Hedgecock)