Allegory

I found myself lost in a darkened wood.

The wolf who killed grandmother scratched the straw.

The snake, as though to prove its brotherhood

with the rat, was carried off and eaten raw.

And I was nowhere closer to the place

I sought, nor far enough from where I’d been

to know precisely which names to erase

or with what word of the language to begin.

a sign spelled out, as though to quell my fear;

someone else scrawled, as if just following orders,

Through trees, soldiers shone flashlights by a lake.

Twilight. I heard my name. But could not wake.