she led us through forests of know

by Ren Pike

go there 

thick thickets

woody arms twined

no path, no path

go there

yes, there

pull back 

branches, careful

red welts rising, finding 

faintest hint of feet

lynx and hare

perhaps fox

perhaps 

there

a path

into the back 

back country of wispy beard lichens

spruce shadowed lambkill 

bursts of labrador tea softness

mosses and mosses

there

carpets

waxy leaved weavings

pale partridge berry bellies

bunches and bunches

blueberry haunches

there

bucket hand ready

picking 'round ant eaten

sun beaten, larix laricina 

fragrant and tilting 

earth crumbling brown 

sugar patch kings

rock basking

there

before it all

Ren Pike grew up in Newfoundland. Through sheer luck, she was born into a family who understood the exceptional value of a library card. Her work has appeared in Whale Road Review, Riddle Fence and Portmanteau LDN. When she is not writing, she wrangles data in Calgary, Canada.  http://rpike.mm.st/