In the Woods

Sunlight dances
across the leaf-covered ground
as we step into the woods
tucked away behind my school.
The trees,
once stark and bare,
now burst with brilliant green.
A light breeze ruffles my hair,
and I know
that summer is coming,
and soon
there will be no school at all.

My friends and I run through the trees,
our laughter drifting up into the air above.
All the childhood fantasies
we have claimed untrue
seem to come to life here.
In the woods,
it seems entirely possible
that we could come across a fairy
or a nymph
in a tree trunk or babbling brook.

Here,
the world seems to melt away.
All the terrible things that have ever happened
seem to vanish,
if only for an hour,
until the teacher calls
Time to go back inside!
and we are left wondering
if the mystical world we discovered
was simply a dream.