Structure Lullabies

Out on the cusp of a normal daydream
The trees and the mosses are not what they seem
For I have explored them, enticed by a gleam

Rocks underfoot they did clatter and crack
Driving me forward to never look back
As low-hanging branches scraped over my pack

It wasn’t so quiet, it felt quite alive
The sounds of the forest so low and sublime
I wordlessly wondered the passage of time

My footfalls were softer and sank into green
Mosses obscuring much of the terrain
I noticed my energy starting to wane

Letting my pack drop from over my arm
And settling down to the forest’s sweet charm
Nothing around me could cause any harm

My hands brushed the roots of a comforting tree
A subtle sound snapping came from beneath me
I dug in my hands to see what it could be

Lo, was a structure so balanced and fine
An organization of nature and wine
Roots curling together in intricate vine

Symmetry, elegance, brittle in hand!
I cursed myself over disturbing this land
Which made human beauty feel ever so bland

I reached back my hand, though upsetting the mound
The hollowed weave structure becoming unbound
Nothing prepared me for what I then found

O viscera, organ, o bodies at play
The middle of root and thorn, there a heart lay
Before life and color had been whisked away

The structure took on a more sinister glow
I noticed the vines were the pattern of bone
Crown to the spine to the smallest of toe

A fairy or demon or piteous love
Which came to rest as this tree towered above
And dream the same dreams we are most afraid of

I lurched into standing and hoisted my load
Longing for comfort left in my abode
To wash away nightmares I found on the road

The forest sang quietly, whispers of mood
Though I considered my conscience quite shrewd
I could never rest amongst hearts worn so nude

Under the trees I did look for relief
Noticing something beyond my belief
That rested so, under each crisp, fallen leaf

It was not just one but a forest of hearts
Each reaching tree was concealing its parts
A terrible slumber that oozed with dark arts

I fled for the opening, long did I run
Looking for bodies, disturbing not one
Fighting the sleep that would have me undone

The edges were fading, the moss a great blur
Yet nothing else in there was causing a stir
But how many slumbering bodies there were!

Bleak thoughts and darkness did swirl through my head
I faltered and fell to my knees, nearly dead
Wondering which tree would be my deathbed

I rested atop an inhabited rise
Feeling the bones and the mossy insides
I thought for a moment, I must close my eyes

Shriveled and weak and upsetting was this
Watching my life disappear with a hiss
And sighted a body decayed and remiss

The dark little heart, it yet only remained
Parted from heartstrings stretched lifeless and sprained
As yearning to meet with the heart they had pained

Slowly and sadly, I let forth a tear
That fell through the cracked ribs and then it fell near
Hitting the heart with a smoke and a sear

Was this a dream or a thought of my mind?
I watched the heart slowly expand in the brine
And lock itself to the strings in a tight bind

The bones fell beneath me to ashes and dust
The mossy green floor trying hard to adjust
A structure that fell, and had once been a bust

I fixed it, I saw it, I praised to the sky
That tears would be freeing these souls of their cry
And live greater futures than ever could I

I had no more tears to deliver to souls
But maybe some others would learn of their roles
And rob ensnared corpses from futures in holes

I dragged myself bodily out of the woods
Back towards the explorers who turned up their hoods
Declining to share with me much of their goods

Something had happened when I was away
Or maybe they knew and they just could not say
The price that my sorrow and tears had to pay

At last I was home and was laying in my bed
Remembering bones and the hearts of the dead
That vision would never erase from my head.

This is a poem written with the theme of Magic, with the prompts “exquisite decomposition,” “lullaby forest” and “cut and restored heartstrings” for the creative writing vlog, Wordplay #12.