These trees stand tall, witness to our lives,
brave in the wind, though tremulous
leaves spin, twist and twirl, they
celebrate with pyrotechnic excitement the lives they live.
Waving to the rolling cloud,
they wring blind hands in the storm,
hoping together, altogether, they can quell the madness.
I watch them
wrestle with the dragon wind in their bellies
never astonished at the thunder nor the lightning that will in a snap
Raze a fiery bush or sever a limb.
Standing yet fearless indefatigable shedding their leaves,
to spread their seed far into the future,
so that if they are taken by drought or storm
they grow again, stand dauntless again,
returning again as though they never left.
Because like us they never do.