I see you
in all your beauty-
Glorious Guardians;
Protectors of Life.
I see you Young Ones,
like children.
Seedlings, saplings, sprouting
bold new buds.
Full-body leaf-laughing,
arms open wide.
Bright spirits breathing in
sunshine and hard, driving rain
in equal measure.
Accepting everything, all of It.
Tiny flowers shimmy-shaking
in the breeze.
I see you Grown Ones,
raised arms to heaven;
in prayer and praise to
The Magnificent One.
Full-spectrum color-dancing
until Winter comes
bearing icicle bracelets.
I feel your presence
without even looking up;
as I trip-trap through switchbacks
and lose my way.
I see you Ancient Ones,
knotted and gnarled
(wisest among us) and
centuries old-
Testament to Time
and Truth; you
hold up a mirror and
tell future’s fortune,
both. You, who know
each star and constellation
by sight, by name, by heart.
Look-
Did you ever notice?
Those bent and broken,
lightning-struck and rotted out,
how they (even the weeping ones)
can’t help but bow
before it all?