Depth of feeling here, Bill. It's a difficult realization and well wrought.
On Wed, Nov 11, 2015 at 1:58 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Like a punch drunk boxer flailing
> at air, Ralph's weathered limbs stir
> to action when he senses challenge.
> Massive spine notwithstanding,
> each fresh battering takes its toll:
> supple now supplanted by brittle.
>
> Towering above his green cousins
> he recalls times when he too
> absorbed tempests with sway,
> rejutting his proud, malleable jaw
> to the gully's seasonal pummellings.
> Beyond sighing, Ralph has had it.
>
> Overlooking Lakeside Drive,
> old enough to remember
> when phantom tarn might
> have swollen into being,
> soon all his boughs will sink
> into the lakeless earth.
>
> bw
>
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