There’s a strange cottage in the woods
it lurks just beyond the tree line, out of sight.
Even the heat of summer cannot affect
the cool atmosphere around the cottage.

Sometimes when I’m overheating
I’ll zoom past the treeline to the lake
the cottage rests upon.
Sometimes when I’m overheating
I’ll eat porridge by its shade.

The cottage is old yet doesn’t age
Frozen in time it seems.
Sometimes I imagine light within;
It turns out to be fireflies among the beams.

A mask sits upon the hook
Where hats and coats usually rest
And on the table of the cottage
Lies a bottle full of liquid.

Sometimes when I’m overheating
I feel a little brave and enter
the cottage by the lake.
Sometimes when I’m overheating
I’ll empty that bottle into the earth.

The cottage doesn’t change at all
The liquid returns somehow
If the mask is moved it returns somehow.
I didn’t steal it, Just moved it over one.

The mask is green, with little spots
Up close they look like skulls.
They’re cracked and dusty, old from time
Unlike the cottage the mask is within.

Sometimes when I’m overheating
I put on the mask and grin at
the cottage’s interior
Sometimes when I’m overheating
I pretend I live here in the cottage.