Haunted Forest
Christopher Stein

I am standing outside a haunted forest
I have felt nothing all night
men with toothless chainsaws do not scare me
bloody clowns throwing dull knives do not scare me
neither witches weeping blood nor bitches weeping mascara scare me
I am scared by the blind morass of mud that sucks me down
pulls me back into my life I think it is the wrong life
I do not ask for the words that slip around my collar
like a necktie something to hoist me up and dash me down
I do not raise my phone to my ear wanting to feel something
for the first time tonight I am screaming
I am so full of the rage that boils over like witch’s brew
I do not know why my life is an apparition other people’s wishes
are writ across my brow like a crown of stars
the dictates of capricious constellations changing with each season
I wish I could plunge back into that haunted forest
throw myself on a toothless chainsaw to cut this iron heart out of me