Darkwood
05 June 2025
Dee Allen
Beware the Darkwood
The murky stream cuts across
Where crows hide in branches of oak
And children’s lives are lost.
Beware the Darkwood
The place we’re told to avoid
Where the Prophet went hunting—
Four witches were destroyed.
Beware the Darkwood
A girl chased after her ram
Where the Dark Mother’s power is strong
A forest of the damned.
She entered the Darkwood
Alone in that scary place.
Met two witch lovers, a gift was given:
The leather book in Immanuelle’s face.
Again, she entered the Darkwood
Because screams broken her sleep.
Delilah the third witch crept up,
Pulled her into the dark water deep.
Again, she entered the Darkwood
Met Lilith with the horned stag skull.
Immanuelle felt her first bleed and ran—
The evil wood swallowed her whole.
Yet she survived the Darkwood
Her mother’s words from the book came true:
Blood. Blight. Darkness. Slaughter.
Dark Days start anew.
Yet she survived the Darkwood
Now Death will come to call.
When the four plagues reach us,
Bethel—get ready to fall.
___________________
W: World Goth Day 2025
[ Inspired by the novel The Year Of The Witching by Alexis Henderson. ]
Dee Allen
African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 10 books--Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black, Elohi Unitsi, Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate, Plans, Crimson Stain, Discovery and his newest, The Mansion--and 81 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far.