swirl of anonymity

we are all in the gutter...

In autumn, I followed you through the wooded grove a few blocks from my childhood home. I watched you as you knelt in the leaves to rinse your hands in that brownish greyish stream. We climbed over the rotting trunks of fallen trees, their branches haphazard as capillaries. We tore through yards of thorny brush and emerged almost bleeding. Our hands still smooth, still clean.

At times we were shoeless. At times we were scared, because it was dark and we had no flashlights. At times you had ventured too far ahead and were silent when I called your name.

At times my heart pounded with the growing fear that the whole world was one big forest that I would, for all of my life, follow you through. But it was worth it, to be lost and following you. Take me again. Show me your hands. I will still follow you.

posted by swirl of anonymity @ 4:00 PM