Lost in the Woods

(Ballad)

1

The night is full of ghosts tonight,

Both ghastly and divine;

And all is darkness to my sight,

For all these ghosts are mine.

My memory's a haunted house

Of former love and cheer,

My youthful days of happiness

Flooded with human tears.

My lot was with the world of boys

Of courage, strength and will

(And oftentimes in better moods,

I'd think they're with me still).

For we were boys of innocence,

Heedless of spook or ghost

And heedless of the dangerous wood,

In which past boys were lost.

I will not name these woods or say

Wherein these woods may lie,

Because this world in which kids play

Can make them cry and die.

The world of children is a place

Of blissful ignorance,

And when they vanish, one by one,

So goes our innocence.

But we were young and spirited

In bravery and friendship;

We three looked out for each the other

As if we shared a kinship.

We'd fight off bullies, left and right,

And backed each other up;

We'd share the workload and the blame

If one of us messed up.

And so, one day, we did just that—

We each stepped up to fight

Off Blake, three comrades 'gainst the one

Surpassing us in might.

We stood as one, a triple threat,

Three pairs of eyes and fists

To counter all his speed and strength,

And yet he still persists.

This bully Blake kept up his threats

To wring our little necks,

Calling us pussy-footed losers,

Because we each wore specks. *

We three, in turn, kept up our stand

And dared him to approach;

We said he wasn't man enough

To stand up to a cockroach!

We laughed and jeered in all our glee,

We three who were but nine;

We stood with arms akimbo, glaring,

Drawing our battle line.

We stood, three musketeers of might,

Against the wooded background;

We stood, each one of us a knight,

Against him in the foreground.

Yet we were heedless of his plans

(For Blake had evil aims);

He raised his fingers to his mouth

And whistled—his friends came

Out of the woods behind our backs,

Charging us in a flurry

Of jeers and threats to wring out necks;

We scrambled in a hurry.

So Blake's three friends had scattered us

And chased us t'wards the woods;

The bully and his friends outnumbered

Us, laughing where we've stood.

We three then hid ourselves behind

The cover of the woods;

All three of us raged in our hearts

And wanted to spill blood.

And so we three regrouped and planned

Our vengeance in our plight;

We planned to make a desperate stand

Before we took our flight.

We gathered rocks within our hands

And charged up to those bastards;

We threw our rocks in one great volley

Of missiles on those dastards!

And so we turned around and fled

Into the woods again,

Running and running with the dread

That Blake would catch us then.

We ran and ran t' escape the fiends

We pissed off with our valor;

We ran and ran until we heard

Our foes' receding haulers.

2

But in escaping our pursuers,

We made a stupid error;

Not only did we lose the fiends,

We lost our way in terror.

The afternoon was waning now

Upon the six o'clock,

When waning autumn's colored sunset

Heralds the rising nighthawk.

Not only have we lost ourselves

Within the woods at night,

We recognized we have forgotten

To bring with us a flashlight!

And adding to our helplessness,

We each had not a compass;

We never thought we'd lose our way

When running in our rumpus. **

The shadows of the woods grew long,

Surrounding us in gloom;

And so we trekked our silent way

With ling'ring thoughts of doom.

We passed the trek in idle talk

To keep our spirits up,

Trying to keep our eyes on watch,

Should Blake come sprinting up.

And while the twilight overhead

Darkened our way in shade

And shadow, we traversed our way

Into the night and prayed.

We prayed, turning this way and that,

Trying to find our bearings;

We walked, holding hands as we went,

Keeping us from despairing.

The night was full of ghosts that night,

Sending shivers up our spines;

And all was darkness to the sight,

For all these ghosts gave signs—

Signs that whisper of evil tidings

In the hush of the wood—

Signs that prophecy of our dying,

One by one, in our blood—

Signs in the rustling of each leaf

Of threats that hint of death—

Signs in the snapping of each twig

Of dangers 'tween each breath.

The shadows, they creep in and out,

Leering at us in the dark

And leering past the edge of sight,

Waiting on us like a shark—

Waiting, waiting, predatory,

Hidden in every nook—

Awaiting three scared little boys

To frighten with one look

Into the monster's silent stare,

Into the fiend's embrace,

Into the monster's dreaded grasp

And in its eyeless face.

Such were the thoughts that filled our heads

As we traversed together;

And so we took up our last stand

As we consoled each other.

We halted on a snapping twig

Just up ahead of us,

Jolting our hearts to racing beats,

Inciting such a fuss

That we mistook each other as

The monster thus attacking!

And so, we scattered in our haste

And sent ourselves backtracking

Into the woods and lost each other

In the panic of pursuit;

And so, I ran and ran and ran

Until I lost my route!

I called my friends and yelled their names,

But now I cannot hear them,

Since they're too far to hear my shouts,

For I was nowhere near them.

For the next hour I called their names,

Wanting to hear their voices;

But more and more all that returned

Were the woods' eerie noises.

My friends and I inside the wood

Have lost each other now;

So now, enveloped in this gloom,

I must escape somehow!

3

Deep through the woods I searched and searched,

Turning this way and that way,

Trying to gain the path, and yet

That path (no matter what way

I turned, retraced my steps, or wandered)

Revealed no exit out;

And all the while this forest dark

Grew darker all about.

The subtle threats were everywhere

In half-heard silences,

Lingering here, or here, or there—

All dreaded occurrences.

The crinkling leaves, the sway of branches,

Even my footfalls' tread,

Filled me with awful thoughts of doom

At each invisible dread.

Because, beyond the veil that hides

Our demons from the eye,

There lurks the hidden entity

Waiting for kids to cry.

For tears of fear attract the weird

Things that go bump at night—

For shaking nerves attract the takers

That take you out of sight.

And so, with such abominations

Swimming about my head,

I made my blinded way in terror

Of walking 'midst the dead.

And so I walked and walked and walked,

Treading with silent feet,

Until I heard a snapping twig,

Sending me in retreat.

And so I ran and ran and ran,

Running in all my haste

To 'scape the faceless, nameless fiend;

My efforts proved a waste.

I tripped and fell and kept on falling,

Falling an endless drop

Down, down into the depths of hell,

Until I came to stop,

Landing upon the bones of teens

And children in these woods,

Ripping my clothes upon sharp fragments,

Staining the bones with blood.

Now bleeding from an open wound,

I cupped my arm in pain,

For drops of darkened blood bled through,

Soaking the grounds like rain.

With tears erupting from my eyes,

I mumbled out my sobs

And curses, wishing I'm at home;

And when the pulsing throbs

Of blood have lessened in their flow,

I looked about and viewed

The bones of all the children there;

And so my sobs renewed.

I sobbed and sobbed and cried and cried,

And in my tears I feel

The warm embrace of faceless death,

As to and fro I reel

Between the worlds of life and death,

A baby in the cradle;

The ghastly vision disappears;

Death wraps me in a swaddle. ***

My vision blurs from dim to black,

Black as an airless coffin;

And then I see the face of death,

Whose features 'gin to soften.

And when I gain my vision back,

I see her comely face;

Death has a woman's handsome looks

Without a single trace

Of decomposing flesh and bone,

A worthy face to die for;

And then she bends to kiss my forehead,

Although I know not wherefore. ****

But when she ventures towards my mouth

To give the kiss of death,

I close my eyes in ecstasy,

Waiting with bated breath.

And as her luscious lips touch mine,

Just at the peak of pleasure,

My world turns black and all is nil;

I lose my greatest treasure.

4

I woke up in the hospital,

My parents at my side;

They both rejoiced to see me wake,

Relieved I have not died.

Yet when I saw the parents of

My two friends still in tears,

Instinctively I sensed their horrors

Curdle my blood with fears.

I then inquired about my friends,

Asking if they were found;

My friends' sad parents looked at me

And said they're not around.

They said, breaking it to me gently,

The searching party's still

Searching for them inside the woods;

Their whereabouts are nil.

And so I sobbed and cried and cried;

I knew what had occurred;

That fiendish lady of the woods

Has taken them; no word

Of their true whereabouts have surfaced,

Since I was found alive;

It's haunted me forever since:

Oh, why did I survive?

This world can be an evil place,

Filled with the stuff of nightmares;

And sometimes when I close my eyes

To sleep, I'd feel the hairs

Behind my neck stand up on end;

I know with every breath

I take that woman's waiting still

To give her kiss of death.

The night was full of ghosts that night,

Both ghastly and divine;

And all's still darkness to my sight,

For all these ghosts are mine.

FINISH