A GreenDruid
Walks along a path
Through the forest
She feels green
Uncertain, timid
She walks slowly through
The trees
The oaks stand silently
The maples do not move
The pines watch her mutely
She trembles slightly
With a dread she cannot
Explain
She moves quicker now
Steps on a root
Mumbles sorry to the maple
The maple smiles sadly down at her
She does not notice
But still she is afraid
A little voice in her head
Tells her to leave
But she brushes her fears aside
Thinking them to be groundless
She moves on
Deeper into the wood
After an hour
She is tired
She sits down
At the base of a maple
She touches the maple gently
The maple stands silently
Watching over her
Knowing she is doomed
Unable to tell her so
The maple's branches droop in sadness
But she is unaware of this
She smells the fresh quiet air of the forest
Feels the almost unnatural stillness
Something is out there
She thinks fearfully
All the birds are silent!
Her heart thunders with fear at this knowledge
She clutches her hands around the maple's gentle trunk
The maple senses her terror and is sad for her
She is so green and does not know the forest
The tree cries for her certain doom
Sap bleeds from it and drips on to her head
She touches the sticky fluid
And knows she is being wept on
By the dear maple
The tree has foreknowledge of what
Will happen to her this day
She quakes with fear
Unable to arise and flee
Paralyzed as she has never known
From far away
The huge animal smells her
She is hungry
She must eat
For she has young to care for
And they must eat too
They are screaming at her for food
Freshly slaughtered meat they must have
She smells meat
Smells a human presence
She would not normally eat humans
But this one smells
Vulnerable to her
And she is so hungry
She must have meat for her young ones
She is uncertain
For humans have often killed her kind
She has heard the sound
Of their killing
Strange things she does not know
That make a terrible loud noise
Ruining the stillness of the wood
She focuses her considerable
Senses upon the female human
She can hear the human's terrified breathing
She can smell the human's great fear
She can see the human's pale face
She thinks of how she
Can make this quick
She does not want
The human to be afraid
Or to feel any hurt
She knows fear and hurt
And does not want it for the human
She only wants meat
For her young ones
She creeps forward
The human does not move
She is unaware of the animal
She only is afraid
But knows not what she fears
The maple cries more silent sappy tears
On to the green druid
The great animal crouches, tenses, springs!
She hurtles through the air
Feels herself falling
Then
She lands
Upon the woman
The human cries out in realization
Terrified beyond all reason
The human knows she is going to be meat
She hopes, in her last instant
That a young animal or two might eat
That her corpse may be of some use
That it not be burried in a wooden box
She tries to thank Nature for giving her
This useful ending
But before she can speak
The merciful mother of four
Bites her neck
And she is ended
Before she can dwell
Upon her death
She is completely and unalterably dead
At the base of a maple tree
The maple drips more sap
On to the dead green druid
The trees around stand silently
Some crying for her loss
Some comforted by the fact
That some young ones will be fed this day
The animal rises, her task complete
Feeling sad still
But knowing she had to do it
She hears her young coming
Racing through the forest
To consume their meat
And she calls to them
And so they come
And they begin
To
Feast.
Copyright by a freshly killed GreenDruid January 24, 2005.
I am completely exhausted after writing this. I think awen is sometimes a harsh mother. Sometimes I just have to write what I have to write. I tried not to make it too violent but I fear I have failed in that task. I am so tired, I was eaten twice because I had to write it, then correct it and read it over. I wish awen wasn't so fatiguing!
This poem was inspired while I was in the druid chat the other night. I think we were talking about going in the forest and then I had this fearsome thought that if I ever went in the forest the predators would sense my vulnerability and would...well you know what I mean... Anyway, I couldn't write this until today. Then I got killed three times, once writing, once reading, and once by awen.
Phoenix
Very true. Awen is a consuming Force...Giving & taking. 
