A Mighty Tree Falls

a mighty tree falls
cracks the forest canopy
like a thunderclap
echoing off distant peaks
alerting wild deer and elk
who crane their heads high
and fix their wary ears

a bare-shouldered woodsman
stands sweating in the new sun
silences the smoking chain saw
smells the slain-stained air
sees not the toppled cedar
but cabins and bedposts
cradles and rocking chairs

the boy at his side
leaps upon the moist
white meat of stump
basks in the knowing
that only a moment
separates his presence
from that of the living tree

then it hits him
like a thunderclap
his life rooted in time
is fragile and finite
he too will one day
give way and fall into
the deep well of Earth

~ N. L. Nason ~