Escape

The lake is quiet,
the tree-covered mountains watch
like silent sentinels.
She dips her paddle into the water
and rows out from shore,
onto the still waters where she can think,
alone.
Could the dreams she had be the fate
of all she saw here?
She wonders, and hears a solitary bird
in the distance, singing
A sad and melancholy tune. Listening,
she forgets the world around her
and flies on the wings of a sparrow
Up to the highest mountains, she sees
the forest spread beneath her.
So great a size, so perilous, sure,
she flies again to the treetops,
As a boat on the lake tips, and a
solitary figure slips beneath
the unrippled surface in escape.