tree fall

"its roots are bristling in the air

like some mad earth-god's spiny hair;

the loud south-wester's swell and yell

smote it at midnight, and it fell."

thomas hardy (excerpted from the tree: an old man's story)

i was walking along a snowy trail

a few kilometres south of here.

it was absolutely silent

but for the creaking of the trees

the leaners

you know

the ones that have fallen

but not completely fallen -

making a soft wooden kind of

sound

that feels brown

and grainy

and old.

~

i came 'round a bend

in the trail

and saw this fallen tree

bark hanging in tattered strips

from its fractured body

and i felt such empathy.

but then too

i felt

the loop of its life.

skybound

and then

earthbound.

beauty

like ribbons

draped over

its folded

and bent body