Under the Pines

by Johnny Packer

Chapter 1

To return meant to follow my heart,
to have faith that wherever the path leads
will bring me to the very same part
where I swore I heard her pleas.

I returned, like I said I would,
standing where the old boundary line stood.
The morning was cold, but the sky was a still black,
like an opening mouth swallowing the track.
I walked past the ridge, just like before,
but the landscape was shifting, right at the core.

The pines rose tall, just as designed–
and I knew then the forest was reading my mind.
Pines may be just trees,
But they’re spaced with perfection. Intermittent. Static.
The bark holds patterns like pixelated television lines.
When I step inside, the air thins–a familiar scent.
The silence doesn’t feel empty.
I can hear a pulse beneath the pine needles.
Matching my heartbeat, a signal fitting like a key.

And just in a moment’s grace,
I found myself in a different place.
The memories have made me blind,
and the woods left me behind.

Something tells me she’s here.
And something in that, I fear.
For now, I have to make sense of it all,
And answer the voice as it starts to call.