Poem: Aftermath

 

Aftermath

 

 

in a forest as cautious as brittle bones, 

trunks of the motherless 

lay on their sides near laughing geese,

while wind combs

through a paper-birch bark of shivered curls,

howlsome in its error.

 

i kneel

to touch fresh fissures

in elderly resistance.

how did the octogenarian wood

resist for so long this cruel glade,

before a cracked mouth

stretched forth from its own guts

to leer up at the storm,

splintering to savage?

============

World's on the brink of war, Russia into Ukraine.  Could be the last.

Beware the fascist, authoritarian macho.

5/15  "resistance" replaces "wood"

5/15 "the octogenarian wood" replaces "it"