Silent drone father
Never feeds the hive in life
Mates once-then eaten

Selfish-evergreen
Prefers his sunlight- Mountain
Beetle Rots her belly

It's break time again
The steam whistle blowing
All hands stop
Stacks of boxes
Not growing

We walk outside
To have a smoke on the wharf
Where grass grows up through concrete
And the sea is green and dark

Hobnail boots ping ping
On metal stairs
Wrinkled scarred hands zip up jackets
Old dogs who know nothing but work
Blow smoke in your face
And call you "boy" in thick accent

They don't scare me like they used to
Because I have cuts on my hands now
From diving over a railing
To save an impatient old man

It seems just when life gets to where you want it
You have a dream about someone
And your jumping over railings
Into the teeth of a cutting board

It seems just when life gets to where you want it
You have a dream about a girl
And your waking up alone in the dark
Drinking water and taking pain pills
Even when nothing really hurts at all

The air is warm today
With a soft and slight humidity
The perfect temperature
For an adventurer

The wisteria were in full bloom
Hanging from the basket of tree trunks
Overflowing purple and white petals

The birds sing songs of danger
Calling out territories
Guarding their new hatched young

Beautiful songs to me
Strike terror in the heart of some
Lone crow

I watch as two red breasted doves
Chase the angry crow from the crown of an evergreen
Their spinning and chirping looks playful and joyous
But courage beats in their little hearts
As they fight off the thieving devil

Blue skies are cloudless between the canopy
Yellow sunlight drifts down and through the branches
Creating radiant yellow pools on the moss and dirt
Squirrels chase each other through the glowing puddles
As if they too are playing

Down on a fallen stump
I sit
Counting the growth rings up to fifty

Sudennly I realize how young I am
How foolish and unknowing I am
Ancient trees loom around me speaking in leafy whispers
Deep dark sylvan beauty
A childish breeze blows through the treetops

Sudennly the most beautiful creature I have ever seen
Stands on a log across the clearing
I hide behind a thick tree
....was I seen?

Her thin shadow moves around the stump where I sat
She kneels to exam a row of ants
Crawling up an old root

She has a green notebook now open on her knees
She squiggles notes between the lines
Stopping to squint at the line of soldiers
Pointing and counting
..1....2....3....4.5....6..7....
She seems to count for a while
And then writes furiously

She sits on the stump
With the notebook in her lap
She has a beautiful little smile
The smile of someone
With a very secret-secret
That must be told

She could be a ghost
I know these woods are haunted
But the way she held the pencil between her teeth
As she counted the growth rings on the stump
Was not very ghostly

She drinks from a canteen
I must be thirsty
My mouth is quite dry
Maybe that's a good enough excuse
"Hello, my name is Jacob, and I have been watching you from the shadow of this tree for the past few minutes and I was wondering if I could have a drink?"
No, I cannot do that

Besides
I am a scientist

Only an observer


(A strand of her hair falls in her eyes and she puts puts it behind her ear)



Especially now because she has stood up and walked to the edge of the clearing
Where she kneels by a flower
And begins to draw it in her green notebook

Drawing and tracing
Hair behind her ear
A strand falls on her cheek as she works



So silent
My heart skips a beat as she finishes
picking a petal and placing  it between the pages

You felt like paper
Flimsy and unsure
I was afraid to take
A picture with my
Mind. You might
Float away when
the flashbulb shines
Losing control of
Everything
Because all I can
Remember
Is kissing you in the summer
Sliding my hand up the back of your skirt
I loved you
I really really did
When I knew nothing else
But the skin on your face
Glowing green in the dashboard light
I cant think of another line for this poem
My heart is too broken to remember the rest