Your voice quivered,
It was an unstable path
You packed it down in my ears
As feet crunch through twigs,
Destroying the brambles.

Images blend,
The vibrant disintegrating leaves
Turn from fragments to whole fire.
With your smothering hand
You point a finger; an arrow.

Draw back and release
My shoulder is pierced
And it jolts me awake.
My body scrunches and turns
You are embedded in my mind.

You tried to take me
To the land where fallen vines are shackles.
Your breath seeps out
In the rhythm of an unsteady pulse
The moist air darkens the sky.

I pull back and you step forward.
A pause-
A withered orange leaf sails in between us.
Somehow this time,
You knew not to follow