Amber Skyze: Welcome Xavier Axelson

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Welcome Xavier Axelson

Thursday Things: The Woods, by Xavier Axelson

I love the woods. They call to me. Woods surrounded the street I grew up on. My backyard looked out on a vast forest and it provided many hours of playing adventures, mishaps, and occasionally scary moments. Remind me to tell you about the time I was stuck in mud up to my thighs and lost both my winter boots. I can still see my mother’s face as she leaned over the muddy bank and yanked me out of the mire.

The sound of the woods is probably the thing I love most about it. There is nothing like looking up at the treetops as they move in the wind; the sound of the leaves is hypnotic, the whine of boughs---an eerie reverie. It is the sound of nature. If there is magic in the world, it lives in the woods. I have found many a hidden fern glen with sunlight falling on it; filtered through the ceiling of trees and if there are fairies or wood sprites, believe me they were there.

“Lily,” was a perfect excuse to submerge myself in the woods. Being I am unafraid of a forest, I found the idea of something lurking around the edges; watching, wanting, wondering, a fascinating and sad twist to a place I always found enchanting.

“I could see the woods; a delicate mist had fallen during the early morning hours and hid its depths from me. I felt closest to Lily here. I would come and stare into the woods, even speak to her as if she were just hiding behind a tree and not somewhere altogether more horrible…”

There were always animals wandering around inside the woods sadly never a mystical white wolf, but other equally alarming and beautiful creatures. Although, there was this time a stray dog chased after a friend and I, and the bees, oh the horror of bees that have made nests on the forest floor.

The last time I went back east, I spent an inordinate amount of time hiking through the woods. I liked one particular path very much. It was the type of path that led you further and further into the woods and around each curve, there was something to discover. There would be a small stream you traversed by walking across a broken piece of wood and then a hall of trees that had arched towards each other like lovers; branches embraced, leaves wound around one another so when you passed under them you looked up into a ceiling of green. There fallen trees to climb over, manic and loud geese to hear from a nearby island and ducks swimming in stagnant sun-shadowed ponds. It was a sanctuary during a trying time and a home away from home.
"Woooods," she said, "hooome, one day.” She pointed outside, "Home?"

About Xavier Axelson: Xavier Axelson is a writer of erotica for Silver Publishing and Seventh Window Publications. He is also the Los Angeles Sex Advice Columnist for Examiner.com, contributes regularly to Queer Magazine Online, and writes a column for All Bear Online Magazine.