Deliverance
by Lina Zeng
Lost in a dark forest
Where footprints fade
In the waning light,
I no longer can see
The trail others took
Escaping this maze
Where every shadow
Makes me shiver and
Every movement
Takes me nowhere.
Blackness closes in
With cold silence.
I reach to the left,
To find boulders
Towering over me,
To the right find
Trees blocking me.
Sinking to my knees,
I begin to crawl,
Feel rocks pitting
My hands, branches
Tearing my back
Until light dawns
At last in my mind.
Flint! Two stones
I grab. Three strikes
Create the spark,
Falling to dry leaves:
The miracle of fire
I make work for me.
With one branch
As a torch, I locate
Trail and deliverance.
by Lina Zeng
Lost in a dark forest
Where footprints fade
In the waning light,
I no longer can see
The trail others took
Escaping this maze
Where every shadow
Makes me shiver and
Every movement
Takes me nowhere.
Blackness closes in
With cold silence.
I reach to the left,
To find boulders
Towering over me,
To the right find
Trees blocking me.
Sinking to my knees,
I begin to crawl,
Feel rocks pitting
My hands, branches
Tearing my back
Until light dawns
At last in my mind.
Flint! Two stones
I grab. Three strikes
Create the spark,
Falling to dry leaves:
The miracle of fire
I make work for me.
With one branch
As a torch, I locate
Trail and deliverance.