Time may stop
But it is those moments of life
Where beauty best sees fit to rest its head
Upon shoulders of iron will that refuse to bow
A strength beholden to one shared amongst the many
A light in the dark soul of a world gone mad
That shatters the sad heart born of a passing
Into a better state
One that knows no fear lest time resume
Its ever marching trek down the flowery gardens
To which experience paves a road of gold
Not diminished by its steady crossing
But improved for having been graced with such resolve
In that every stone demarcates a moment
Where time has slowed and reflections
Shine bright those calm moments of quiet serenity
Whose mother is peace omnipresent
Born from the passion of each step
Where every recollection recalls a story
Best told by those who shared in times gambit
Knowing that even at the end of one path
Time will stop and give birth to a highway of love
Lined with memories of you.

This is immortality

I gaze into the eternity beyond pupils dilation
Where soul has lost sole control of the spirit
And the darkness that grips twists the mind
Warping memories into incoherent phantoms
Wailing in anguish as I brush them aside

Gazing deeper,
Beyond the pale of of my mortal coil
Searching for an answer that nature neglects
Written not in emerald green starbursts,
Shrouded by grey washed blue skys,
But further, beyond the heavens
Where night stretches beyond Terra Firma
And empty space reigns in perpetual waltz
Aging as my eye progresses towards the birth
When light was given life and purity was pure
Before the infection of the question
That has no answer

Nor did it need,
For there I found looking back as if a mirror
My reflection staring at itself in amazement
For I had solved the theory of everything
By knowing thyself… beyond myself

“To live is to learn“
He said as he held his crying son
Between sobs he felt fresh tears seeping into his coat
Damp reminders of times he himself broke down
Feeling the pressing weight of life and it’s expectations
He held the boy at arms length

“There was a time not too long ago…

The magnolias were in bloom
Sweet summer consumed sweet home
Alabama sang from the back of a black pickup
Doors open and tailgate down we loved the sound
Touchdown! rang across white cotton fields
Swaying in the gentle southern breeze
Whose caress cools the heat of the day
That buzzes with whirling dragonflies
And Hovering Toms humming to a bees melody
Blue Jays fought Bluebirds under blue skies
Pocked by slowly drifting cotton clouds
Lazily shape shifting into reflections of the land below
…
A rabbit, curious, ready to bounce
…
‘Ol Bo, the bird dog, pointing to a fresh ****
…
A deer, alerted, spooked by murderous cawing crows
…
All of this, seen by a boy in a tree
…

“Until he fell”
The father whispered to his son
Rolling up his sleeve he showed him the scar
“You see, my boy, I have broken a bone or two…
Some hearts
… Some dreams
Said things I didn’t mean…
Yet those magnolias still bloomed
The bees still buzzed
And birds either love or hate the color blue
Such is the nature of nature:
It is alive because it has learned to live“

The morning dew drops fell to their rest

Little stars shine moonlight reflections

Each reminiscent of the different dimensions

To which water can be a part

For on the tapestry of earthy green leaves

A universal ballet is being rehearsed

As spinning fractals dance to the rhyming crickets

Whose choir hums to a classical melody

That soars as high as ancient redwoods

Towering above the dew drops as they pilè

Into a pirouetting waterfall

Whose crash sends cosmic waves

Of pitter pattering percussion

That quickly rises to a triumphant crescendo

Only to fall silent as the first light of morning

Transforms the dewy pantheon

Into glorious diamonds of golden rays

Whose attitude stands defiant

Against the altitude of the coming vault

Back to the skies from which dew cried

A forlorn mist longing to reach the clouds

And escape the terrestrial embrace

Whose gravity forever tugs with tidal force

Turning mist to rain to fall in stars

Droplets destined to reunite with the lonely night

And once again dance to the dew drop ballet

Division runs rampant through unity on the break
Torches flare as rage flickers smoldering kindling to flame
Erupting the perpetual boils that fester beyond infections wake
Fearful that lives saved are endangered for propagandas sake
Nay, the divisions that split rip to shreds the patriotic fabric
Shorn to threads amiable friendships that broach enmity
Between brothers bound by blood shared
Bleeding red in concealed unison given to each at birth
As mighty Gaia trembles under the weight of shrugging Atlas
Beseeching the old gods to return to former glories
Resting lonesome Olympus from its divine pantheon
To quake and shake the shared foundations built
Atop mountains of lies stacked one after another
Before the heavens part and holy Elysium repels
The hearts of both men and women who dared divide
A house unified on sacrosanct liberties inherent
Gifted to the corruptible souls of humanity
On the premise that justice should be for all
That hold the highest values inviolable
By any that would rabble-rouse the masses to forgo
The established law of the land on such flawed premises
Where words hold greater authority than actions convey
And peace is but a pipe dream puffed in perfect rings translucent
Fading before the light has a chance to cast dark shadows
Imperfect in their reflection yet somehow flawless in impression
Oh, if only we were not like that famous allegory
Confined to our own individual caves
Then maybe our eyes could open wide and once again
Let in the truth that we have for too long allowed to blind us in hate
Perhaps the fates would halt their furies
And end our shared torment avoidable
Unifying a once noble people to again stand proud
A beacon to a world begging for freedom
Clearing the fog of war and lighting the path
Back to the house we once called home

By L.R.Thompson

My eyes alight softly upon pale velvet waxing
Whose grace is as weightless as a tilting feather
Slowly orbiting between gentle arches
Caressing the space that separates two hearts
And minds locked in a tidal waltz

Waning, my gaze shifts to supple curves
Outlining the crescent shaped body
Which loving light reflects in full
As the beats of my pulse rapidly impact
Scaring the surface with my every rotation
That births a new phase with every rise
Yet sets my sights again upon distant beauty
Teasing the mind to reach out and embrace my muse
Relenting to the gravity ever drawing me nearer
Until we collide in throes of violent passion
Two bodies merging in the fires of love
To become one forever more

The flame boils upon the cauldron
Sparks arc in fuels exhaustion
An explosion erupts among scattered embers

Fire
Seams that trace natures cunning
Within evil facade impressed
Upon purely good
That is
Life
Which burns with the radiance of the sun
A passion diminished by no quality
Other than itself
An expression to be

The passion roils as temperature boils
The soul to ghastly pieces
Imploding within itself when faced with itself

Stand tall and proud
Oh ye mighty sentinel
Cast your shade there
Upon yonder ground
And with yer roots
May ye cultivate thine soil
So thoust may creep higher
With limbs reaching
Skyward
Climbing minutia
Until ye break through the canopy
Soaring amongst the clouds
Sowing thine seeds below
To grow the next generation
Of silent sentinels

A portal appeared
Thin line sheared
Ripping the world
As the end neared
For cataclysm came
Ragnarok Regained
The gods they fell
The mortals to blame
Thus darkness came
Descent into hell
Lightnings they strike
With storms that hail
Some devils do call
While others may fail
Yet heroes do rise
In light they shine
Rising at the moment
What fate defines
Ready to battle
To war they ride
A shout TO ARMS!
Their enemies do cry
Some may flee
And others do die
The devil had felled
A hero had rised
The day was won
Terra his bride

A high pitched siren rang out in the distance
A tree limb snapped and flew upwards
I stood before the storm
Head held high and defiant
Challenging the maelstrom to a duel of wits
Shouting
"You may churn you evil beast
You may bring death and destruction
But YOU WILL NOT take me!"

The wind howled in agitated reply
Tossing me high up into the sky
Where rain turned to sleet
Which turned to ice
Freezing my flesh
While simultaneously lacerating
With razor precision
The word
"Slave"
Upon my flesh

Then...
I fell...

Into the storm wall I lashed out
Imagining the cataclysm but a normal summer shower
I imposed my will and shaped the storm
Shouting
"This life is mine alone. I am my own light and I live for myself. So take your darkness and destruction and go. For I am slave to no man nor beast...
...I, am FREE!"

Then it was that the storm died with me
That day as I hit the ground
Never to return nor destroy
For I had finally defeated death and destruction
By embracing life and all its pain

He emerged from his cave
Parched and sallow
For captive he had been
Chained in place and staked
Detained within the deepest confines
Of the mines beneath the earth

There his world was of shadow
Formed from flames and ideas
Corporeal yet intangible
Dancing upon the cave wall
And within the nothing beyond
Moved the shapes and figures
That cast the shadow of his reality

Yet he was not to be contained
For a mind restrained cannot refrain
From understanding the concepts
For their forms
And the one form he had not yet found
Was called freedom

So he escaped his cave and emerged
A hero
For he had seen past the shadows of his life
And seen into the beautiful world
Beyond the constraints of base perspective
And there he found the sun

Blinded, the man stumbled
His eyes in shock from sensory overload
Freedom was bright
He thought as he stood straight
To face the new day
His first day
Free to understand a world
Without the misconceptions
That arise from the preconceptions
That define his reality

Stolen on the wings of the canary
Soaring within the clouds
And bouncing within hidden canopies
Is a song known only to the sun
And certain flowers

Trapped, the song pleads
In early morning
And in the dusk of shadows
"Hear me sing 'o lonely forest!"
Yet, sadly she found there was nobody to serenade

Frantic, the canary ruffled her feathers
Searching for just one ear;
One soul willing to listen to her precious
Color held captive

You see, it was yellow what stole the canary
For its song had long since seduced her
Dying the white of her genesis golden
After months spent dancing
In tune to swaying southern honeysuckle
Or simply chasing the setting sun
Soaking up every sweet note
Of yellows orchestra

Defeated, the canary found a secluded tree
Alone atop a barren mountain
And sang one final time
"Hear me sing 'o lonely earth
For I have taken that which is yours and have made it mine!"
She spread her petite wings,
Each feather a ray of sunlight,
"Hear me sing, for you 'o mighty mother
Are the only one willing to listen..."

Then, the canary cried
And with each tear dropped
Individual notes in shades of yellow
As her feathers bleed revealing her true self
A pristine white
Unblemished by the envy of color
Finding she was finally satisfied
With her own song

It's in the quiet moments that we dwell
Kneeling from the weight of countless burdens
Imagining atlas as he stood proud after shrugging
Thinking and gathering the courage necessary
To do what is required regardless of the strain
We heave in determined concentration
At first making no discernible impact until...
Progress and a shift in consciousness as peace
Begins to peak over a distant horizon
Silhouetting our boulders in stark contrast
To the warmth and radiance of contentment
And with one final push we shrug our burdens
Catching them in waiting opened hands
For we realized through the trials of atlas
That his mistake was dropping his weight
Instead of accepting responsibility for his actions

The universe is a brain
A brain that you live in
An idea given life

Inside your brain is a universe
And your ideas
Create life

We live inside God
God lives inside us
The universe is full of Gods

Gods and ideas

Seamless we fray
Torn at the seems
Ripped to shreds
As love shears
Our minds
And hearts
Yet mere cuts
Do little to lacerate
The magnetism
That bonds two souls
Stronger than any rending
Splitting or slashing
Capable of separating
Or dividing
Our two hearts
From splicing

A dim haze silhouetted the mire
A gurgling burble swirled beneath
A twirled stump rotten in decay
A deer struggled frantic to escape
A high pitched wailing and flailing
A deep moan and groan followed by
A silence
A stench welled up as flesh decayed
A harsh hiss as the acid fizzed
A fetid fragrance that wafted to join
A dim haze that silhouetted the mire

Sadly the clock ticks
And Old Man Time
Steals another breath
As a moment is captured
Frozen in time
Locked away
Just out of arms reach
We grasp
Losing touch with a second
So powerful
As to leave us breathless
Desperate
For just one more tock
One more kiss
As we say "I do"

Why cant we do more?
Be more?
Reach for Babel!

All stories told.

Yet we remain cattle,
Chained like links,
Tied by bonds,
Kinked.
We CAN do more,
But first we must unravel,
Travel the infinite highways
Of the mind,
Rewind the needle
And pull the thread.
Shed the unnecessary
"Necessities"
That necessitates a clarity,
Individually,
Away from the herd
Toward the ultimate
Enlightenment:

To do more,
One must first,
BREAK THE NORM

Bring down the earth for your own gain
Mother nature tears fall like rain
Open your eyes and you'll see her pain
We're all in this together

What we call progress is really the spread of disease
Man content to exile his home
Forgets that, like a tree, he has roots
That stretch for miles
Creating a vast web that strangulates
The lifeblood responsible for his sustenance
Until the point to which starvation
And devastation run rampant
Darkening the firmament
With smoke from their bombs
As Gaia shakes with earthquake trembles
Warning the plague that they have broken their covenant
As they huddle cowardly in their machinations
Hurriedly searching for the reason why their home aches
While not giving a single thought to the consequences of their actions

However, Gaia, doesn't care about their ruminations
The deal has already been struck
And it is time for her to cash out
She looks to her sister Luna
Who sits in a crescent wink
Hurdling towards their destructive reunion
And the end of the ungrateful pestilence
That made their mother cry

Bring down the earth for your own gain
Mother nature tears fall like rain
Open your eyes and you'll see her pain
We're all in this together

Crestfallen,
The heart begins to deteriorate. Leaving behind only minute palpitations that tell the story of the current fall. A single sputter gasping out of synchronicity causes a spastic flutter of images past; facades in multitude. Vanish. Leaving the heart sinking in growing desperation, deprived of that which lends reality to its existence...

"The fact or state of living or having objective reality"

Were we ever even alive?

At lights end we find a state of mind
Eternal
Grasping for the familiarity of life
Lost
Hoping that we live on in a memory
Immortal
That establishes how to be a moral
Human

Millions of miles
Into the sea.
A Darkness beyond,
You fail to see.
Ask not why?
For failure, believe.
Its duty is known
As force to be.
Wonder not?
For fear to bleed.
The universe is vast,
Its secrets you seek.
Look on,
To timeless past,
The answers are yours
Better first,
Then last.

I wish I could write about balance
Yet it seems much is lost with me
Like the philosophy that used to define
Or the friends who used to get high
Yes, it seems I have aged for the worse
Becoming the very thing I fought against
The usual nine to five employee
Whose life revolves around a clock
Desperately waiting for the ringing bell
So that I might go home just to start over

"Can you help me with my homework?"

I'm a father now and having a purpose
Helps to cleanse the monotony
Yet, there is always that lingering thought
Who am I
Is this balance?
Or is balance lost?
The uncertainty is maddening as I return to the present
"Life is the geometric progression of experience"
It slips out and they want and explanation
"Please, Dad!"
I internalize my struggle
As I struggle to reconnect with my former philosopher
So I draw two dots for them
One is me now and one is me then
"Boys, this dot here is who your father was"
"This other dot is who he's become"
"Perhaps the value of the latter is less than its former"
"Maybe mathematics got it wrong and real value doesn't have a power"
"Or ratio to determine greatness"
"What if the father you know now is less than the man he was"
"Like that negative sign I find myself subtracting"
"Removing years and tears and time"
"In an attempt to find that simple balance"
"Possessed by a mind without a factor"

The boys look up to me as I hide my shame
They know men do not cry
"Its okay Dad, we love you for who you are now"
"You've become more than just a simple number"
"To us, you are the worlds greatest father"

There it is
I think to myself
I am found
The reason I continue through the pain
(Balance Regained)

Minds claim to know that which is not.
Foundations... they are broken and they rot.
From the rubble is found a truth stronger than life;
To understand that knowing is nothing but
Standing on our understanding.
Now we 'K'now

The fever subsides
Washed away with a purity of focus
Focusing on the sweet harmonies
That only mother nature can heal
As her tears fall
So to do the responsibilities
Responsible for the sickness
Which so plagues the mortal soul
Bound in chains
Shackled by obligations
Mankind trembles
Afraid to face the truth
That their worldly lifestyle
Conflicts with the natural world
So it rains
To mother nature's horror

Diametrically opposed
We push and pull
Yes
Like a set of magnets
We are drawn and arranged
In such a way
As to offset normally balanced poles
Into an array of dizzying fractals
Playing off one another
In a symphonic harmony
That vibrates
With a disphonic ferrousity
Until we are drawn closer
And dance in the force of our love
Our attraction unlimited

For one known to sojourn
The world becometh but a fraction
With every incremental journey
The puzzle of life clarifies
Like an uncouth window in need of cleaning
Every swipe removing a haze
That had previously clouded your vision
So that absent your cataracts
Each new destination resolved
And the beauty what lay beyond
Beckons
And as you merge into nature
Father asks you:
“Do your legs not tire little one?”
Enthusiastic you mew the contrary
You always were the contrarian
Springing away in leaps and bounds
In search of the next great adventure
Waiting around the next bend
I watch you go feeling proud of my little girl
Yelling after her:
“Daddy loves you my little traveler
Be sure to return with tales of your exploits.”
Like clockwork she returned again and again
As days became months and those to years
I began to fear the day when you no longer came
...
That day is today my baby kitten
…
And my heart aches for just one more story
From the one cat known as Sojourner

Daddy misses you so much

What words left unspoken
Speak callous to the mute
For it is grace to give sound      
Opposition tranquil                        
Like the rushing water              
Heard from a background ravine
Babbling incessant                              
Just out of reach                              

Woe it is that such secrets rest
That truth ranks second      
En lieu of base expression      
Deeming stoic pretense superior
To turbulent interior                          
Similar to the focus of a predator          
Stalking it's prey              
<Silent>
Waiting for the perfect opportunity
AMBUSH!                          
To sate the quiet hunger              
Patiently lying in wait                

Oh, it is a shame that masks be worn
For behind that false visage        
Rests a truth                        
Left unspoken

Deceptive it sleeps
Waiting for the rage
All consuming
A break in the torrent
Pain subsiding
It's replaced
Singular focus pulses
Throbbing incessant
Needing to be released
Craving blood for blood
Seeing red
It's free

And then words
Alone
Are not enough
To sate
The demon patient
Waiting
Hiding behind
My face

Storms wash over the lands
Flooding
Causing a veritable maelstrom
Palpable
Trunk swaying in reaction
Lightning
Flashing and booming in bass
Cacophony
Wind pounding and beating
Incessant
Attempting to erode the landscape
Cleansing

Then...

Calm
A break in the dissonance
Assonance
Filling the pall left behind
Peace
Healing the ravaged earth
Sun
Shining glorious rays
Prismatic
That shatter as the eye passes
Blind
A terrifying howl reminiscent
Forlorn
Followed by a sickening rip
Broken

Then...

I am flying!
Spinning
Rotating at an ever increasing rate
Disoriented
Confused as my world tumbles
Torn
From the only home I'd known
Alone
Just a tree caught within a raging
Cyclone

My sadness comes when life is put into perspective
Just how tiny we all are
In a scheme unknowable
But also possessing knowledge
A contradiction set in the realization
That perfection is not a part of our condition
Instead that we are conditioned to seek
Nay
My sadness is not one devoid of happiness
But alas one of wanting more than can be obtained
Straining to see through a looking glass
Whose aperture contains but the slightest imperfection
Such that the vision produced is warped
To a degree that sight becomes a lie
Dancing like a butterfly just outside my peripherals
Taunting and laughing at me during those quiet moments
Of peaceful contemplation
That lends the insight that generates a sadness
As massive as the black hole at the center of our galaxy
******* in the surrounding information
Only to spit it back out
Unrecognizable
To the otherwise happy and content man
That desires to be more than this mortal coil can permit
So I sit and write aimless lines
Designed with the intent
To convey in words
The potential inherent within a mind
Wondering adrift in a world possessing a surplus
Of ignorance

If only others possessed my sadness

The world could be a happier place

Why hasn't it changed?
If all we just do is sit back and abdicate
In faith that justice and liberty are inherent
Within the minds that control and manipulate
Both the means and the ends
That lead to a prosperity unworthy
To the masses and become limited to an elite
Selfish and soaked in a tyranny
Founded on the power generated
By the minds of the ignorant
Who truly know not the meaning of freedom
Given, only to be ripped away by the simplest
Execution of our most fundamental rights
Possessed by all with a mind
And a soul which yearns to decide
For itself whether it is to be free
Or a slave to those inferior in wisdom
To the animalistic tendencies we so quickly
Fall back on in a relative, fictional, safety

We all have a treasure to discover.

Some of us collect cards
While others of us hoard gold
But there is nothing in comparison
To the love I now hold
For there is no price tag
Or dollar amount to pay
The value that you bring
Makes tolerable my day
For you I will sing, scream
And even write
Proffessing my love
In all its might
So that it might grow at a steady pace
Never moving to slowly
Always giving chase
Because you are my queen
You're happiness my focus
To spend my life with you
Is just a pleasant bonus

I discovered my treasure. Shes priceless.

The clouds scamper along the horizon
Bringing with it a breeze of life
Ever so succulent
Like the sweet smells from a jungle canopy
Ripe with fruit and flowers of all variety
Accompanied by the sing song melodies
Of crickets
Chirp, chirp, chirping
And bees
Buzz, Buzz, buzzing
As the breeze weaves it's way through the trees
Causing a deep moan sporadic in nature
Then... rain...
Falling out of nowhere
Furious
Lightning flashes as thunder follows
Upsetting the breeze to a gust
Speeding up the world in a fast
Sorta
Slow motion
That yields sight to rushing lime greens
And bowing brown boughs
Caught within the torrent of life
Only the forest may know

Words absent I sit and ponder...

Am I the one I see in mirrors reflection
Or I am just a mirror immage of potential
Lost in the convex surface striving to be more
Like light flowing in waves to form an image
Particles aligigning at the wrong moment
And at the wrong time to develop a concise juxtaposition
So that the world appears like a 3D movie absent 3D goggles
Side by side with the potential to relay a whole
Yet only delivering a blur of information undescerned
Similar to a vinyl record slipping on an endless scratch
Forever broken and divided from it's potential
To deliver a clear and crisp note tonally pleasing to the ear
Yes, I am he who exists in a self imposed purgatory
Forever doomed to repeat the mistakes from his past
Never quite grasping the difference between the cardinal directions
Of life and the proper heading into the storm and the fluctuations
Marking the true course of happiness and it's cardinal rose
No, I am just a broken man sitting and remembering
The myriad failures that drove me to write the very words now read
By another soul dissatisfied by the image facing them
As they sit and ponder their reflection in the mirror

What esteem there is between lovers
Whom time has allocated a chance
To prove that not all obstacles
Require tears
It's the years spent together
That true value can be found
Like hidden gems in a simile
Where the relationship between two
Is best expressed through relativity
Shared within a hearts journey
As it ascends and descends the mountains
That represent the highs and lows
Of our loves ebbs and flows
Where our fingers can brush heaven
Tracing our names in the clouds
Or where our feet hit the valley
And the only way left to go is up
So we climb in effort to summit
The esteem only lovers can know

The light retreated as he stepped forward from the shadows

Recoiling away like the hand from a poisonous snake

Casting the world in a semi-luminous glow of a crimson washed patina

He struck a bell seven times to announce his arrival

With every strike the sound became less pronounced; distant

Until at the end of the seventh, ghostly silence reigned supreme

As he moved the air started to sizzle, the energy overwhelming

An oppressive heat boiling the air itself into a darkened conflagration

The stench of decay followed in his footsteps, putrid and wretched

Life held its last breath begging with eyes pleading for lights return

The last leaf fell into the wind
Soaring high above the world
As it hibernates in its cool embrace
Dancing the leaf spins and flips
Burnt orange and red outline
Creating a juxtaposition of gesture
As if the leaf itself were cognizant
Conscious of its high altitude journey
And its low altitude destination
Below the foothills
Beyond the mountains
The leaf crested the final peak
A near miss by leaf standards
Stiff fir trees with prickly boughs
Waved their farewells with a flourish
With a tilt and a final gust
The descent began
Faster and faster the leaf fell
The valley growing nearer and nearer
Until...
The wind stopped
Leaving the leaf to glide
Rocking side to side
Like you would a screaming child
Gently
Ever so gently
To sleep
Joining his brothers and sisters
Children of the earth

The great flood had begun;
Replacing the land with a waterworld dotted with mountain top islands;
Arks of mammalian preservation.

It was there I stood as the moon fell.

Night had never been so bright;
Luna inching ever closer;
Craters becoming more and more visible;
Resolution broadcasting high definition;
I raised my hands to the sky;
Reaching out to catch the massive satellite;
First contact came as my hands bore down;
Soft silt of the gray quality puffed;
My arms and legs began to bend;
The weight so tremendous that the effort shook my body;
Hers as well;
My left knee struck the land;
Terra redoubling my efforts;
Heaving with all my might I shrugged;
Sending the moon back towards the heavens;
I watched silently;
Luna was returned to her orbit;
The flood began to dissipate as tidal forces resumed;
Leaving me alone;
Hands to the sky on one knee;
Looking down at the world;
From the mountain of Everest.

The gust has a chill
Reminiscing the warmth of days past
It carries with it the soft embrace
Of lavender and dew
As the mourning sun rises
And nature awakens
A deaf pall falls with the leaves
Gently stirred by the growing gusts
Tilting just enough to reveal
The myriad of flashing diamonds
Common to the seasons first frost
Deflated the trees grown as stiff
Sore from the cooler climbs
They groan in protest at the push
Pulling back only in agitation
Somewhere in the canopy
A lone squirrel barks for love
Only to be drown out by the howling
Ever present within the autumn tempest
...
Then time freezes the landscape
Into a frozen panorama
Painting the anticipation for fall
In a quiet longing for spring
...