Midge Goldberg

Trail Markers

The wooden sign, carved with yellow letters,

starts the fairy tale, naming the path

into the woods, telling the story—how far

to go to Emerald Falls, to Eagle’s Dome,

to home.

Blue painted blazes hail you as you pass,

mark the trees along the sunlit trail,

attend your swift ascent. But then the trees

crowd in and down, shadows black as crow;

rocks grow

as you scramble up their sides. The blazes glow

like lanterns now—keep going, eyes down on

the roots and rocks as the path knots up the mountain—

companions as you find your way uphill

until

like breadcrumbs beasts have eaten, they are gone.

Freeze. Look forward, back. A step, a turn,

but nothing. Vanished, and you’ve lost the trail.

Tendrils clutch your throat—green grasping fear,

am I here,

where am I? No. Don’t. Go backwards. There,

on the rock, the bent blaze crooking its blue finger—

come here, come here. Someone’s been by before,

leaving the message—this way, this way through,

yes, you.

Midge Goldberg is the editor of Outer Space: 100 Poems, published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Her third collection of poetry, To Be Opened After My Death, was published by Kelsay Books in 2021. Her book Snowman’s Code received the Richard Wilbur Poetry Award, and she received the 2016 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, the poet Robert W. Crawford.