Sugar Maple

stay there

up on that hill

i’m keeping my distance

i see you for who you are

know what you hide

in those fanning roots

standing alone and

naked against the cold

no sweet sap again for me

trunk

limbs

winter clouds

a dust of snow upon the hillside

all one dreamscape now

your leaves gone

petals of sun

pastel flakes of sky

settled upon the ground

as painted ash

from life’s great fire

over it is

when you had me in

their glorious

twirling their

steady endless

free falling

day

after day

in

the

chill air

blown by

shifting autumn winds

no more deep shade

squirrels hesitate

beneath your frozen branches

rummage through the wreckage

try to recall their map

of buried seeds

watch as

hungry deer

chew frozen earth

today

the world is gray

i stand away

gather my perspective

on the vast distance

between us

hidden

for all that time in

summer’s flush of green

autumn's deceptive glory

watch brown shriveled hands

crawl in bent and broken grass

beneath thick clouds

and the chill and cover of icy rain