At the End of All Things

Nature's Nature

The old oak tree

Stands tall

Bark ragged

Limbs crooked,

Gnarled like fingers

Grasping at something

They cannot reach

But want, oh so

Desperately, so

Completely, yet

They cannot touch

That they wish to hold.

Ever alone, surrounded

By others, but he is the

Echo.

Elm of silver branch

Elegant limb and smooth

Grace abound, wandering

And careful song of the

Wind rustling vibrant leaves

Watching the oak, so old

But the elm is so young

An angel casting her gaze

Upon her sovereign Lord.

Intoxicating pine drifts

Past the elm and oak

Savory sweetness, musk

Of the underbrush

Stirring, stirring life

In patterns of crimson

Flashing like ruby drops

Falling from the crystal

Heavens, topaz and gold

Thrust from tree limbs

As a rain of color, but

The pine is alone,

Always and unchanging

Emerald, emerald in the

Unyielding sea of sunlight

And wonders, wonders

Why he is different,

The unchanging, the eternal.

Flames dance from the

Boughs of the young maple

In fiery tones that speak

Joy and war and exaltation

Loud colors that fade in winter

That season where grey

Takes over everything,

Binding the color in frosted

Caskets of iron grey and white.

It sees the fallen leaves of its

Brethren, a graveyard hollowed

At its roots, the deep roots

Yet untouched by the frosted

Binding iron, willing for

Fall once more when Change

Is King, and not Death.

The sapling is there, growing

Fighting, competing, struggling

For life, the one thing that is

Hard, so hard, when one is

The smallest, lesser

In size and importance.

Torn already its bark, made a warrior

In youth, leaves ripped, shredded,

Still lanky. Still helpless in the

Cruelty the other trees call nature.

To him, nature is the wolf, and he

The hare. The one difference?

He cannot run.

And I, who am I?

I am the mouth

That speaks no words,

The feet that never

Touch the Earth,

The sightless thing

That sees all.

I see the trees,

Young and spry, aged and knotted, old and fallen.

I see Nature's nature, as I am the

Wind.