WHISPERS FROM INSIDE THE TRUNK
Trees spark verse in every season
Of careful diction, rhyme and reason
Assonance, alliteration
Double entendre, personification
But craft is trumped by the timeless art
Of listening well with an open heart
A SAPLING IN SPRING
The thin dark trunk
And its skinny offshoots
Rise up from Mother Earth
Responding to the warmth of the fiery ball above
With tiny bumps the shade of brick
That will slowly erupt
Into the emerald foliage of spring
WHITE WILLOW IN HEAT
Her leafy canopy does not weep.
She is content to simply be
herself, haphazard and unique.
Her silver-white petticoat shimmies
beneath a modest skirt of green;
she dances, horizontal, in the breeze.
A wanton and cunning daredevil, she
waves teasing hands toward overhead wires,
and dangles deft feet above bonfires.
Brazen and wild and free,
her confident spirit knows no fear.
She does as she pleases.
THE “RED FLU” COMETH
A autumnal pandemic seizes maples unaware
Dotting them in random crimson hives
Neither the elderly nor the young are immune
The blotches take hold and expand and join hands
Until every branch shivers and burns in full fever
Copses aflame, tortured and crying for mercy
Nature’s tonic rides in on a bitter wind
Smiting ravaged leaves and tossing them to the ground
Branches emerge cleansed, but bare and frail
Facing the hardest but most crucial part of healing
Resting quietly, regaining strength
Tucked, until spring, beneath a blanket of white
NOVEMBER PINES
Seven firs gather
around a park bench
A stand of weary backs
and creaking knees
and aching feet
Too hard-nosed to sit
Branches droop
Boughs hang heavy
Like green icicles
that have beaten
Winter’s crystal ones
To the punch
The pines press on
Squaring their shoulders
Warding off winds
Boarding birds
Discharging their duties
Refusing respite
Stoic evergreens
Snub both praise and pity
And bid me farewell
Then brood and blather
On which is finer
Sainthood or martyrdom
I look with praise and appreciation at the beautiful colors especially during this season, but must admit have never ‘conversed’ with them. Rather, I praise our God who designed them. But now after reading your verses, I will look at them with more intense eyes and try to see them as you describe… just loved reading your verses.
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