Zero Isle

 

I was in the woods today
Not really the woods
But a big park
Where you can lose yourself in the ash trees and the vines
The light flickering in the daytime heat
Lost in the thicket;
And have a row of houses within view.

The orange bell-flowers all clustered together
a little too bright for me to see them well
My eyes take in all the white parts of the leaves
The parts that suck in the sun in the light
And I come across a dead tree next to the trail
                                   And inside its hull is so very dark
The soil around the tree is darkened and moist
And peering in, I see
A statue of the blessed virgin:                               Mary
Chipped and praying, praying, in the cool shadow,
I wonder who put her here,
I had never seen this tree or her.
The streams are all dried up, awaiting the next rain cycle,
Which will happen soon.
The insects are sleepy; strange. It is so hot! Where are they?
                                                                 What are they up to
The trail is winding and splits
I take the lower one
And coming around the corner
A  stag, mid sized, healthy, still.
He regards me without movement
And I sense his determination

To do what?

The forest is small
In the middle of many people
And here is a place with the natural state;
But it can live by its own desire
Amid the fraught.