Free Birds, Wild Botanicals

Above, as we make our way
down into the ravine this
perfect spring day the shrill
cries of a pair of circling hawks,
the coarse croak of a raven,
the unforgettable fragrance
of distantly discharged skunk,
all pervading our newly-roused
spring-aware senses; we forge on.

Inside the ravine, the wind that
blows so assertively above gently
kisses our faces turned toward the
trail-encircling woods. Under a clear
blue sky, shifting white-puffed clouds.
The sun heats the forest floor.

There, tiny wild white strawberry
blossoms wink their presence.
Among them, small purple and
white wood violets, and the modest
yellow flowers of trout lilies, the
winkling scarlet of trilliums.

Above, wild apple trees begin to
set their buds among the blooming
floral-white blossoms of scattered
serviceberries. Wild gooseberry
and hazelnut bushes have come alive;
green and scarlet fiddleheads unfurl.

Primitive horsetails colonize and
monopolize the marshy swales, as
baneberry, red and white, emerges.
Old long-fallen tree trunks glow
with their luxurious moss carpeting;
nurseries for pine and spruce seedlings.

A pair of somnolent Mallards rise
in sudden panic from the still, clear
waters of the creek below, flapping
energetically, to settle beyond our
intrusive gaze. There, high on a
branch close to an entanglement of
trees, a sole brilliant scarlet cardinal.