Stepping over that imaginary line between
Suburbia
And
Darkness
The woods are going to eat you up

Slide down a crumbling cliff
White chalk on the seat of your pants
Thorns in your palms from a bad grab
Sweat, sweat- sticky summer sun

Children laughing on the blinding pavement
Then
Just buzzing
Whirring
Leaves in the trees, water in the creek

Battered cattails leaning on concrete pipes
Steel rods breaking the current like fingers
Coyote-shredded carrion
All behind a veil of brush and flies

Catching minnows in the arch of your feet
Caught!
Male
Female
Take them home, raise them up

Long streamers of toad eggs
Let them tickle your feet
Gather them in a tub
No, put them back. You killed hundreds once.

Let it all eat you up
Tiny
Little
Paradise
Then scale the cliff, go back to pavement.