Midnight: Gymaek’s Forest

by Richard Stoltzfoos

In blackness, amber owl takes to its flight,
Scanning, with listless eye, for obscure prey,
Victim searched for by vixen near away;
For vole and vixen, sure to meet upon that night
Without mutual consent; the pale moon lists
Over the bent dark trees, shedding its sickly
Luminescence on the foreknown scene below,
Smiling with shallow ghost-eyes as the hunters and
The hunted find their places in the craggy
Wood. Heedless of watchers, fox makes ready,
Leaps. The horned bird, circling overhead,
Watches the pair, then moves on, sensing peace.
The traveler halts, watching the sight
Then keeps on, for ’tis past midnight.

Richard Stoltzfoos is a follower of Christ and Gen-Z romantic living in wonder of the world around him.

Photography by Kenneth Godoy