A Death In The Woods

Thou dost sway 
Gently beneath the yew tree 
Snow-white eyes peer 
Upward along the creaking fibres of thy rope 
As if to examine the cause of thy pallor 

Now 
Thou shalt never catch the warmth 
In scents of eventide 
The sun shalt shine upon thine skin 
But warm it not 
And dessicate thy carcass 
In the embrace of rodents and invertebrates 

Now the shadow beneath thee 
Doth cast a dead spot in the forest grass 

Here, thou shalt acquaint thyself 
With the textures of a most empty silence 
And a horror endless, which doth bleed into itself. 

Hear a mocking witness mouth the words, 
"Deus, tu conversus et vivificabus nos."