The root bridge

I fear the fall is near

One step and I could be gone

You stand across the gorge

Brandishing your woody sword

That faint gambol in your step

Whispers secrets to me.

A curved smile carves your lips

You twist it around like paintbrush

On paper.

Not from my world, your words evaporate

Fast and faster into the deadening silence

You brandish faster and that tells me

Cries of the victim will soon pierce

The blue.

A trap, I still take that first step

And down comes the bridge

Of my dreams.

The roots like straggly hair

Flutter and wave in defeat

A thousand years of being

Reduced to a short swift second

I fall.

The bridge falls.

I hear strains of music

It cannot be my music box

That the rocks snatched from me

And just as I realise

It's the humming strength of water beneath

I am ingested.

Who will know there was once a root bridge here?

Who will know I came all the way to talk to you?