Walking the Wall

“You turn back our paths of flowing water,” the queen said. “You block our passageways through tree and well and pond; you thread your thorns and weedy vines between our worlds as though you own them both. As you close our paths, you close your minds to us. In your thoughts you keep us trapped in some bleak place that you must never enter, no matter how our ancient wonders call to you across the boundaries. We are the word you must not say, the food you must not eat, the wine you must not drink, the forbidden love, the dangerous wood, that which tempts and lures and always, always destroys. Is that all we are to you?”

From Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip, p.264.

Photograph by me, Orton effect created with +64 saturation and 60.5 blur