A Dreary Path by Rochelle M. Anderson

A large tree in the middle of green woodland. Large white text reads: The Dreary Path. Smaller text reads: Discussing disabled characters in fairy tales and folklore.

The woods are mysterious with trees
that mark the trail.  Branches tightly
packed, light wanes, and the moon provides
no illumination.    I am lost without
a map or compass.  Now nighttime,
hear a chorus of frightening sounds. 
Alone in a hedge labyrinth, unable to
find the exit.
 
Disability steals the rainbow, colors
grayed and dark.  I dream of life
before the stroke, when all I knew
about the brain was a green gelatin mold
for Halloween.  I wake up and the
nightmare returns.  Like Rumpelstiltskin,
I stomped my feet and disappeared down a chasm.
 
Will I ever leave my fairy-tale world?

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About the author:
Rochelle M. Anderson lives in Minnesota, USA.   She is an attorney who had a severe stroke in 2007 and almost died. She is still disabled with difficulty walking; and because of aphasia struggles with reading and writing. Ms. Anderson has been published in four chapbooks and in an online poetry journal. Writing poetry has helped her recover; and dictation fuels her words.