Woods, late fall

I drag my hand down the bumpy bark

The lines in it, veins

Coursing with green fertile sap beneath

Burning beneath the life all around me.

Fall flowers detonate and burn

In the gardens at the edge of the grasses

Houses line up neatly

In rows - straight and narrow.

I meander down the paved black street

Towards the holy woods

Hemmed in on all sides

By the fading green trimmed lawns.

There life grows in jagged brown lines

In fits and starts, now sleeping

It strains and sleepily reaches out

In stark lines against the frozen blue sky.

My soul, it stirs deep in its fleshy tomb

The fiber of my being warms

And the heart flows to the surface

Of my skin, cold in the fall sun.

The leaves scattered about the wooded floor

Crackle and crunch under my feet

As I place one in front of the other

Already arrived and still going.

The one to whom the blessings belong

Sits quietly by the lake under the naked trees

He engages me with loving eyes

And I come and sit in hushed stillness.

The only sound the beating of my heart

Loud in my ears

Ringing out across the woods

From here, in the center of it all.