The Tale

If you ignore the multitude

red white and green signs against

trespass

walk through the silent

fallen and their sentries standing

guard

tiptoe 'round the poison ivy

on the path well worn by 

dissenters who have come before

hoping patrollers of this

man-made free environment

fail

to see necessity of taking their

job too seriously

you will come to

the place.

A long shoreline

where beaver deer bear 

congregate with birds and

their prey

A place where you try to

spill only the blood of the battling worm

before you arc rod

snap it forward

watching

hooked bait sail across

calm waters.

The world and it's trappings fall

away

relaxed yet poised to react 

you

breathe life into dreams

while 

mosquitoes buzz away drunk with gratitude

Whether the fish bite or not is

irrelavant

you have a grand tale of adventure and daring

that every 11-year-old boy should

have in his arsenal to

tell.

- Vera

The Fallen - Poem

No longer do they

tower

over all that lies

below clothed in

shades of green, or red

or gold.

Weakened by storms

disease and time

they fall; some into

the outstretched

arms of the young

where suspended they wait

for whatever event will

allow their descent

to continue to the forest

floor where majestic limbs

which once

sheltered the wild

and bent in resistance

to the wind

lay hollowing,

full of air yet

breathless.

The tough bark

which protected will

slide to the ground.

Nakedly the fallen will beseech

the young to stand

guard and bear witness

to the growing moss and

fading glory; to

remember a time when

the fallen were the shelter

from the storm.

Some young will twist away

embarrassed by what

their elders have become

yet even as they pretend

the limbs they stretch toward

the sky are invincible, their

roots dig deep and deeper still

to feed on the nutrients which

the past offers to the present

and the future.

And I who walks

among the silence of

their cycle watching limbs

bare or full of leaves that dance

or fall, sit down upon the fallen

in awe and wonder how we so different

in our purpose and our structure

can be so very much alike.

- Vera