Kathio Landmark Trail 09
(for Missy)
Birch have it the most interesting
At the least, they curl like sheaves
Eager to receive tattoos of meaning
Woodpeckers prefer the fallen
Pecking typewriter codes through
Lined rows, player skin, dotted punch card calls
After decay and wherewithal
Bark falls in waves, unkempt reams
Wait to be spooled or burned to air
A trail means look ahead or down
Hedged back, emeraled olive
Forest hides by the side in shade and gobo
Beside the pruned and tall oaks
Are broad tentacled spiders
Monsters of wood which dance mute across decades
There are others who bloom with fungus
As they rise through the canopy
Span across the straight trail - unseen beneath
Landmarks and posts mark clearings now
History landscaped and sodded
While memory pantomimes in brush
These designs are the forest’s life
Written in twist, bloom, and shade
All is preserved and hidden
We are not the trails in the light
We are the spindly sapling
And the coiled green protector that guides
All the eager branches up
All the solemn roots under
As tree rings echo with the acorns drop.
