Mask

To walk in the woods
Black coat, blue jeans
Crackling branches, pine needles under my feet
Startled deer bound on nimble legs
White tails flag, vanish through the thick.
Fingers ache in the cold.
My thumb presses the spot
Where her ring used to be.

Cars travel distant roads
Children complain, "How much longer?"
Angst and pressure build
Beneath masks improperly fit
Bursts of crackling life ring loud
When truth emerges strongly through the veil.

Love runs freely, bounding off through the wood
A cold face where a mask used to be.