Panic

It’s not about the shot
It’s about the journey

Every riverbank trail
Every cold clearing
That fades
Into forest

Fog lying low
Brisk noontime throe

Looking into the sky
Being stared back at
By abyssal
Overcast

Why has this
Come to pass?

Looking back
At the
Mountain pass

Did these rocks and trees
Grow here to fear me?
Roots in the riverbeds
Turned to driftwood clay

This pass will know
My veiled face

Pathfinder’s tracks
In this place
Stay stratified
Where they’re made

Dug up dirt
Trembles before
This spirit
Of frostbite

Steps rift
Frozen soil

Eating away
At this wintry domain
In misted isolation
Alone in havoc action

Lungs shocked
By sub-zero air
Blood sluggish
Lashes shot

Each moment a panic
An otherworld

Each shot
A viscous copper
As the hills
Pass over me

Following the trail
Left behind
By my
Quarry

Can see stoic moss
Trampled upon

Branches snapped
In haste

I will not make
Its same mistakes

Its blood on my blade
My bite will soon taste

The pass quivers again
Knowing I am here
I trespass, yet this
Mountain should fear

A spectre of cold blood
Floating over steps
Of a misnomer prey
Fleeing

An abyssal monster
The size of man

Stalking among
The overcast day