A moose presses tracks in grassy clay
Underneath a baby tree is crushed
Soft needles break, bark is stripped away.
Youth is flattened, nearly severed,
By a sharp hoof the seedling is marred for life.
Harm to the small is muffled,
peaceful is a forest, hurt
when a young tree is crippled
under cruel weight.
Insensible, the animal steps forward.
Smells of sap trail from the wounded,
Aromas of lifelong consequence waft
As the cutting recoils and tries to rise.
With faint quivers it wants to stand
And reclaim a true, skyward pose
But deformity is a fresh intention,
For a sapling bent to the ground.
Seasonal rain soothes,
Summer sun warms,
Snowy sleep restores,
Peaceable land heals and affirms
A gnarled tree grows in grassy soil,
its scarred stem swerves past injury,
wondrously stunted and small.
Still, a crown bud ascends, shedding brutality
Growing with purpose, despite its flaws.
miraculous