LINGERING THOUGHTS OF THE FOREST

BY

Laura Lee Christian

Soft silent moss
gracefully clothing
the huge old trunks
and dry crooked limbs,
life still inhabits
these age old monuments
for green new growth flares out
at the ends of their wide and tall
artwork of branches
and through the fog
beyond the deciduous trees
some huge old firs growing
as they have grown for centuries
not moving, not an inch,
from the place of their birth
but content for it to be so
not suffering from paranoia
of being closed in
or feeling trapped by circumstances
but proud and tall they have grown
through year upon year
delighted to have their spot in the forest
to grow and express what God has made them to be
not a care
just the joy of squirrels
tickling their bark
as they run up and down
to hide nuts or make a home
and the bouncing of branches
by birds landing and then taking off
to fly again
when morning rays
filter through your coverings
to warm your forest floor
the tiny flowers will dance
in the gentle breezes
at your feet
their brief life is like a loving smile
bright and cheering
and lasting only a short while
while your long life
is majestic and temperate
without bright blooms of magnificent color
but you have alot to share
in your whispered laughings in the forest
and how you do so need one another,
so share your joys
no matter how temporal in this world
for you will both have new lives to share
in the new world which God will make
and there will be no short lived lives
you'll both live side by side eternally
and no wearied, withered boughs
but fresh and strong, beautifully symmmetrical
with no missing branches from drought or sickness
so big trees laugh heartily with your waving arms
and flowers with your bright colors smile
for we'll have a new life in the by and by
whether after a brief smile or a long toilsome trial
and our joys shall be evermore.

