Seventeen steps and then some

Finished reading Dreams and Wishes this evening. (I wouldn't have finished it so soon but the library sent me a recall e-mail a couple of days ago telling me that some other user had recalled it. At first I was awfully jealous, as if some cad had just stolen my girlfriend, but I got over it and spent a few pleasant hours yesterday and today reading it. :)) Speaking of which, I spent well over an hour today reading both it and Greenwitch, and it was absolutely wonderful. I spend too little time reading non-school books... Now that winter's on its way, memories of curling up with a book in front of our fireplace back home are starting to return, especially when the heater turns on. If only I had more time...

Here's the beginning of a poem I started writing a few days ago. It's subject to change, of course, being a rough draft.

"Seventeen Steps"

Seventeen steps down the way, she said,
Not more or less, dear, or you'll end up dead,
Then turn to the left and count all your toes,
Your fingers and eyeballs and even your nose.
Follow the footsteps that lead to the woods
Where darkness and danger and shadows like hoods
Cling to the trees like a leech on its prey;
You'd better walk fast or you won't get away.
Take the first pathway that leads to the right,
Downward and inward, away from the light.
Terror may seize you but do not turn back,
For six hundred goblins are hot on your tracks.
Look for the voices which shimmer and sing,
And then nobly ask them to show you the wings;
Take them and fly through the canyon below
Till you get to the edge where the wild things grow.

[...to be continued...]