cedar
Emerging now, the mewling ferns;
New life determinedly returns --
It builds upon what came before.
It makes its entrance, brave and small,
When more comes from what is no more
And answers the eternal call.
The beetles crawl; the saplings grow;
The mosses hide from dappled light;
The woodpecker, the clever crow --
They stop to visit, then take flight.
The mighty tree will still abide
From where its boughs and branches lay;
Immortal cedar, glorified,
In life's continuing display.
The giant cedar passed away;
The mighty tree has sadly died.
It crashed to ground last Saturday --
The trunk had rotted from inside.
It stood one hundred feet in height.
It fell one hundred feet below,
Succumbing to internal blight --
But why it died, we'll never know.
Once a cedar, straight and tall;
Its corpse now lines the forest floor.
Oh, how the mighty giants fall
When old and rotted at the core!
This fate befalls all gymnosperms,
Becoming fodder for the worms.