From '5 Degees to Separation'
©2004 Michael Hobbs Photo
Used With Permission.

The trees, hoary and skeleton like Sorrowful, reaching Soulful and green less Awaiting a glimpse of life How do you breathe without Your leaves? I can almost see You gasp and spasm within Your brittle, gray bark Resembling the aged An outline just able To hold the veins, it’s own Life force through the driving rain Do you feel the biting wind, The stinging sleet? You must know That your life’s fluid is congealed And thick, practically still It’s so cold the moisture arises From the streets and descends from the sky Like shadowy figures Rising and falling to greet the trees Do you curse the water, that liquid Of life, now solid and deadly? I see it punishes and Erodes, where once it flowed The nearly dead branches Still reach for the sky, and Ask the question; is it my time to die? Will I survive another frost? Do you welcome this cryogenic rest? I wonder At what holds you upright In mute defiance With veins and hardly a frame The sun peeks through Melting the snow, giving life again A green leaf has emerged Tell me how you do it. How Do I survive my own Winter, greet the spring with new growth? How? ©2002-2008 Janet Caldwell ©2004 Michael Hobbs Photo Reproduction by permission only, all rights reserved.