Page 146 of Into the Heartless Wood
She is the only one missing.
Clouds knot overhead,
heavy with lightning,
with rain.
I whisper yet another plea to my brothers,
though I know even if they were here,
they could not stop our mother.
She commands every tree in the forest.
She burns with the old anger.
At last, at last, she will have her revenge on the human king
and she will take
the whole world
with him.
I shudder in my cage.
I hope Owen is far from here.
I hope he will not come to face the fury of my mother’s wood.
I want him to live.
To forget me.
To be happy.
I never should have left
violets
on his windowsill.
Tears
run
rivers
down
my
face.
They taste of salt,
the one bit of humanity
