The Stairway
Deep in a wood both dark and dreary,
I stumbled on til beyond weary,
Seeking the path that brought me in,
Finding it not my hope grew thin.
When before me burst into sight,
A mystery in the fading light,
Arising from the forest floor,
Out of place even more,
Than the silence and the still,
Though summer held I felt a chill,
For a heartbeat chimed a bell,
Reckoning what I could not tell.
And there before my very eyes,
A flighted staircase did arise,
Reaching full through the canopy,
It’s finality I could not see.
Through leafy detritus I drew near,
Faltering steps betrayed my fear,
The stair before me beckoned my tread,
Consumed was I by an eerie dread,
And stood my ground with silent scream,
And begged remission from this dream,
Cast away in in this woodland fey,
With dark of night overtaking day.
Turning aside and stumbling apart,
Desperate to escape with pounding heart,
Through branches and brambles grasping,
The breath in my throat wracking and rasping.
Then through a denser thicket I burst,
Only to see what couldn’t be worse,
There before me stood the stairs,
My lips mumbled near forgotten prayers,
For descending from accursed height,
Came a nightmare’s gibbering fright,
With eyeless void to steal one’s soul,
Trod closer yet closer this demon ghoul.
Turning I ran inspired by my terror,
Blindly I fled and such was my error,
Again I fell then getting up to see
The stairway again in front of me.
Copyright ©
Danny Derden
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