Searching in vain

Like headlights

Cleaving through a forest

Miles from a clearing

From the agony of knowing

~

Scouring, where the branches

Snap and give way

For the ghostly plume

Of life chattered by torchlight

~

These backwoods thrive

Coiling their secrets

Tighter and tighter,

Smothering last words

~

Searching and sifting

Through the midnight blue

Beneath the grieving stars

Who recall where they’ve gone