Cascades Benediction

Brown grasses, battered by winter storms,
wave gently in the light breeze.
Skeleton snags and curved, deformed firs
ignored by the harvesters,
Lonely tenants of this land.

Gun metal clouds fly by at furious rates.
Sun breaks illuminate snow patches
on mountain ridges to the east.
Then mist rides in, obscuring vision.
The hum of a far-off airplane intrudes softly.

I stand in the midst of a logged-off knoll,
now meadow. Decaying stumps, forgotten logs
left lying promiscuously.
The old road is awash in winter snow melt and
runoff from hidden springs.

The present solemn stillness belies
once furious activity, the
noisesome denuding of this place.
What line, drawn in the dirt as with a knife,
stopped the hungry saws?

Now, silent scars recede into green coverings.
Nature's bandages binding man-inflicted
wounds of greed and coveting.
Stately moss-covered sentinels guard edges
of the silent plain.

Sun-dappled pockets of light seem to
bestow forgiveness.
Yet far off, the muted growl
of a chain saw is heard,
gouging new wounds.

JP 2-20-2011

Mortality

Lights flashing, monitors,
blood pressure cuff.
Trapped in a bed with rails.
Nightgown with no rear!
How has it come to this?

Can this be all there is?
End of life ?
Or beginning of invalidism?
Will much be the same,
or all be different?

Extreme thoughts, these.
But the locale begets
such fears and truths.
It is an abrupt halt
in my daily march of time.

Images on a screen:
views of veins and capillaries,
sounds of blood roaring
on the speakers of the
Ultrasound machine.

The measure of my living,
still breathing, going onward.
Thankfully.
Gratitude abounds amid
fervent prayers and breaths.

Surrounded by love, caring,
laughter at my image.
That is a true reward andI
resolve to be more careful,
intentional with life.

JP 1-15-2011