missing boys voice heard in forest
missing boys voice heard in forest
the whole holler spreads itself out like a blanket, a crawling
fire-line of anxious ants, moving into what might as well be
a universe of green, swaying over their heads, moving
to the nighttime music of leave-rustling and branch creaking that could muffle
even the loudest where are you or the most anguished yell
if you can hear us
a boy has gone missing, wandered inexplicably from a campfire and been snatched up
by the tree limbs, carried into the black of a forest that swells into an impossible horizon
we could hear him, the mother says, for hours we could hear him, but we couldn’t
see him
the local news will report that others will hear the voice as well
over the sound of tree-sways and dog barks, between the crossing beams
of a million searching flashlights, many will hear it and go looking
the ones who heard him—swear that they did–recalled
his voice was so close, like he was calling and calling
from a place just out of sight or, somehow, up in the sky
to some, he had screamed, to others, it was laughter
they heard through the branches. and for others
the voice they heard was high and sweetly distant, held up
somewhere in the trees, as if
he is singing
years later, children will come to that spot
where a boy wandered off and never got found, the spot
where dirt paths reluctantly give way to a million tangled miles of Appalachian green
they will hear his voice—a distant, clear plea
and they will go into the woods to find him
-T. Cole Rachel
photo by Rhi Ellis
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