Journey

Darkness, stifling hopes,
I clutch my candle as the flame flickers,
Touching melted wax.
No moon, here.  Not for ages.
I stumble over a fallen log,
The bark scarred, and rotting.
I know the path.  I’ve been here before.
Oh, but to stray!  Demons lurk in the darkness.
Yet it’s a demon I seek.

Further on I push, through thorned
Branches and fluttering leaves, brown.
Tumbling rocks thump towards me,
Cutting skin on my bare legs.
But I cannot dodge them.
The trickling of a stream calls, and I follow to
Crusty, yellow water.
Nearer, now.

A cavern.
The roar of pain and anger rips through walls.
Demon eyes, glowing brown and green, examine.
“Hurt,” he whispers tenderly,
And I nod.
My candle flares, and burns anew.
“It’s lighter here,” he reminds me.
“But go back, and hurt.”
The darkness of the world opens to me,
And I step through.
But just barely.