Dock Leaf

This forest was ours once
Before we knew each other
Not so long ago the pepper light
That trickles through these trees
Illuminated our rambling
Among crunchy reds and browns
When romance stemmed no further
Than holding hands and swinging them
Like schoolchildren
We swopped banalities like spies trade secrets
And laughed all the more
Our breaths billowing
Like exhaust fumes on a winter morning.

So many paths we stumbled upon
Oblivious and happy
A myriad of matts and glosses
Assailing our senses
With every new step
Until I noticed the white grass
Beneath our feet
And yesterday’s footprints

That last day, decapitating forget-me-nots
With a thin bleak dislocated branch,
You stung yourself
And we hunted all over the wood
For the plant that would soothe the pain.
Staggering along like mice in a maze
Unable to trace a source
We stumbled upon it by chance
And rubbed away the sting

Your blisters healed, I remember
But I’ve could never again find that
Blasted shrub