Off Ramps - Aug. 20, 2025

any trail through a forest

carved by foot and paw

snakes around bushes and briars

jumps logs, steps through streams,

between trees, skimming sunlight,

preferring dark or dappled

it is not this well-traveled road

but the offramps that intrigue me

carved in memory, not broken twigs

creatures in secret places, and with

the day turned off, tucked in

for another night of stillness

they wait for the moonlit twilight

when wind and a single mockingbird

hatch the night’s lullaby