innermost

 

Trees hold secrets

hidden within their folds,

an innermost being,

visitations of bird and insect

calling cards of debris.

Here is a confluence:

shelter from the hungry bite of wind,

restaurant for the winged,

retreat for dryads,

and the multifaceted

diet of bark.

Here is not the heartwood nor the heart

but a peripheral of soul

that succours smaller things

in a veil of hardened trunken skin

with a grace beyond its gnarling.

The innermost of its being

on the outermost of its span

the beneficence of ages

beyond scheme, strategy or plan.