“Ad ventura”

Like coming in from the snow and,
Shaking off your jacket, finding

A warm glow to the air as though
There were a fire in the corner but

Forgetting to notice if there were
While you sink, overwhelmed, into a couch.

—

It’s seeing yourself at a new place
You remember from the heroes of your

Past, though gone, that whispers to you
All the steps so you will feel a hero

To know the way through, too,
Despite the unfamiliar ground, the way

Shadowed by strange trees whose leaves
Wag at this hero’s passage beneath their head.

—

It will be these trees teaching you of darkness
And terror if you will sit quietly within

There where you cannot disturb their vine-
Ridden court; where you cannot see beyond

The jurors stand that fends away the light,
Intruder, from injuring your repose; wherein

No thought breaks through your forest’s order
As the trees order your thoughts on time and scale-
                                                    on death.