Read Poem: Dark Forest by Gladys W. Muturi

Fifteen years of age
Five years ago
I walked alone at the Stewartstown Park
Little, did I know I’m not supposed to go to the dark forest
I mind my business until I met Him
Met him, twenty years of age
Five years ago
Came out of nowhere hypnotizing me with his smoky eyes and a glittering crooked smile
He spoke with me with charm
Telling me to go to the Dark Forest with him
A dark, mysterious forest
I shook my head and said “No.”
I don’t want to go to the Dark Forest
Where demons demonizing me and animals feeding my flesh
He had tricks to show me he said
What tricks?
A magic trick that will make me disappear like a Houdini Act
or a Kaladesh trick
I went into the forest with him
It wasn’t the trick I thought it would be.
He kept grasping and…