Every once in a while
there’s a knock on the cottage door
like raindrops falling horizontally
& you have to put on your shoes
& you have to set off down the dark path.
You pull on your raincoat;
a sense of something resolute.
You’ve walked the path before
but still, it’s new.
Into the woods
strewn with leaves from autumn’s party;
branches bare after the revels.
Still, you can’t see
through the gaps in the trees
because you don’t really want to
& then there’s the villain,
the monster that waits off the path;
the one you will conquer,
but at what cost?
Meet the one who wants to save you,
over & over; infinite.
But ever after is too long
to be dispensed
of in just a sentence.
What then?
We can’t go back in time again.
I’m not the girl
who used to dwell
behind the cottage door,
waiting for you to knock once more