Oblivious

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