Darkness
I'm beginning to question everything I write! The latest dictat is 'Show, don't tell.' Put enough detail in to make it vivid, but leave out details you don't need. How much is enough? How much, too much?
Our assignment is to write about a location, and place a character there, who may know the place well, or not at all. So here's one about a scary evening walk when I was on holiday with my Scottish relatives when I was a child. I've never liked walking in the dark, even as an adult.
The darkness between the Scots pines bleeds
onto the needle covered path,
monochromed by moonlight.
"Let's take a left then right,
left then right,
see where it takes us."
My uncle and older sister are in on the joke,
are fearless in the absence of daylight.
I follow them, gullible, trusting.
A long way from home, we'd made our way
from the steel house upper flat,
where our aunt sat, warm and waiting.
No way of turning back alone, I squeeze my terror down,
Will my eyes blind to the unseeable shadows,
my ears deaf to the unknowable snaps and snuffles.
When our feet at last head back to paved streets,
each circle of light leads towards increasing safety,
away from the darkness, left clawing at our backs.
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