Into the Forest and all the Way Through

by Cynthia Pelayo

Before you there, a girl who no longer is a girl, a girl who is bone and moss

My fingertips out into the breeze, hoping to brush against your Hair, but you were not there and you are not here, and I am Forgetting to remember your scent, they are forgetting to Remember your name, so I will walk, and I will climb, and I will drive, so that your picture does not fade

They called you trusting, friendly and generous. Is that What happened on the day your sister dropped you off? Was your Kindness smothered in cruelty?

Not until a teacher found chemical burns on my skin that I Could finally tell the story of the little sister I had and the Demons who threw her away and told me never to tell

Now those three children know the way of Questions, and the emptiness of answers, and The disappointment that when the doorbell Rings or when the phone vibrates in their hand It is never their mother

no young Girl should be rewarded with terror in search of adventure

Many questions, but if the questions Are all answered they cannot profit From your murder

I want to comb Your hair, your beautiful hair, I Can only imagine it was smooth As a spider web, but only those Insects know where your face is Now, as that was missing when They found, you there

there was so much Planned for you and you planned, but someone else plotted To capture you, a living, pinned butterfly, brightly colored and Fluttering beneath a hold.

and it’s Time to scream her name Into the universe so that Her blood may vibrate With the knowing of Your longing for her to Just walk in through that Front door,