Walking through the forest, light slanting through the trees
the sound of birds around you puts your mind oddly at ease
you wander deep in thought knowing no one is around
you squander time just walking far from any human sound
as you stroll the light begins to take on a greenish cast
you’re far too gone to notice, your mind’s stuck in the past
trapped by memories of a painful bleak cold world
you scarcely even notice as the leaves, they start to swirl
in perfect spiral patterns across the forest floor
a sound comes softly through the trees like waves against a shore
you’re unaware now where you are,
the boundary’s crossed, you’ve gone too far
you take your first steps, fingers curled
you’re in the wood between the worlds.

Here between the lines of reality’s book
here beneath the strings of life’s grand symphony that shook
a silence deeper than the black of nothingness resounds
from tree to tree a lack of life makes strident leaps and bounds
towards making you aware of the strange place where you have stumbled
your understanding of the world, soon decayed and crumbled
but for the sake of brevity, and kindness to the eyes
in consideration of the long forgotten echoes of your cries
we will end here the tale of a lost man who lost his life
unable to escape, to see again his son and wife
because it’s here, behind the scenes
of life and death and worlds so green
that you were lost to life itself
a toy upon a broken shelf.

From this place there’s no escape
for the sullen and the dull
the nature of the land is shaped
by the nature of the fool.
For those who wish to see new lands
there are passages aplenty
and those who cannot dream or bend
apathy’s true cognoscenti,
they slowly starve themselves to death
as in life they starved their minds
in this place they take their last breath
as their existence, it unwinds

For those lucky few who stumble here
with open mind and dreams to spare
the world-wet pools of space and tears
can take you any when or where
for those whose minds are sharpened tools
between the neverending trees
a trillion shallow perfect pools
stretch as far as eyes can see

within each pond a secret lurks
a pathway to another space
a world beneath the mist and murk
a different time, a different place

dive into one and you may see
a world of dust, planets destroyed
enter another and you may be
trapped in an endless light-sick void

some of these portals, however, aren’t with danger always fraught
it may turn out that your deliverance to this wood was not for naught
you may stumble upon one such a world, with talking beasts and princes true
a world of magical occurrence, perhaps a lamppost tree or two
maybe a world of wands and wizards, hidden from the public eye
one of alien races, brave hearts, blue boxes, lords of time
or something not quite unlike a fluffy heaven in the clouds
there are no limits to the lands that lie beneath the water's shroud

Perhaps you will sink into a world beyond description
a dreamlike madness composed only of things I cannot mention
a land where beasts the size of mountains slowly creep and crawl
a place where you see the sun is slightly big or far too small
before it moves across the sky and looks at you, then blinks
a world where everything you eat can talk to you in shrieks

but if you think it’s worth the risk
of finding worlds lost, warped, and sick
somewhere out there, in those wavering woods
lies the life you’ve always thought was good
all the things you want and more
everything behind your mind’s locked door
beneath one of these pools it dwells
so if you ever have to choose; choose well.