Darkened Forest by Mike Turner

Shadows of darkened forest

Shade my waking mind

Deepening dank gloom

of despair

Drawn from knife-edged ridge

I descend into gulley below

Stagnant droplets fall from dead branches

as I brush past

Sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss

Dying ferns rise like wraiths above me

Blotting out wan sun

As fog begins to hover

Like a specter, haunting

Until at last I reach a dead, mossy glade

Cold like pinpricks ‘neath layers of flesh

Rash of goose pimples on bare skin

Raise of fine hairs on back of neck

As I realize that Hell is not a fiery lake

Nor simmering brimstone

But a moldy, mildewed bog

Silent

But for screams of terror

As I realize

I shall not awake

Mike Turner is a songwriter and poet living on the U.S. Gulf Coast. His original songs have received radio play in the U.S., UK and Europe. His poems have been published in Spillwords Press, GreyThoughts and Red Planet Magazine.