Thank you to Mark Antony Rossi of Ariel Chart for publishing my poem in the October issue.

https://www.arielchart.com/2023/10/the-forest-of-pain.html

The Forest of Pain

 

 

A wooded site,

once begun with a distinctive aesthetic

of beauty and splendor.

 

Within this forest, 

who made the first heartbreak?

 

Bringing forth

all kinds and degrees

of crying conditions,

 

Forming

logs into shapes

smoothly surfaced by tears.

 

Viewed from any angle,

a design now degraded.

 

A relentless struggle fought.

It’s hard to discreetly walk out.

And the hills and groves 

offer no aid

against demons and heartaches left

among the trees.