Uses for Woods                                                                   Lucinda Watson

Button Tobey and I were in the woods foraging for danger.

Button, who was “cute as a button”,

had a mother who always knew where she was.

I had a mother who no one could locate.

The woods were deeply green,

almost black,

with trees that appeared to regrow

foot by foot, glance by glance,

until we were lost

which was what we had wanted.

The smell of boys came out of nowhere

blindsiding us with its sharp and painful ingestion.

We were the campfire and they were the Indians

stalking around us.

Girls wore shorts in summer then with wide elastic waist bands

that could be easily pulled open.

It took a while until one of us screamed

and it wasn’t me.

My throat had been sealed shut years before.

The scream released us.

The boys became boys again.

Button went home to her mother

and I to my house of silence.