The Bared Forest

Crisp little shards of ice from the night's
freeze-and-thaw cycle in this interim
period between fall and winter are crushed
underfoot on forest trails where the season's
foliage mass cushions the forest floor
and lungs fill with chill air whipped by
wind surges. The trees rise in heights of
dark nakedness, the forest canopy bared
of its green cover so now the overhead
sun glances its bright spotlight through a
much less dense forest to illuminate discrete
corridors of deciduous groupings yet still
cannot penetrate the stubborn green closeness
of conifers huddling in a conspiracy of
resistance against an invasion they have
been long familiar with yet defy in shades
of green nature has divested from those
that surrender. The gaunt, black forms of
denuded forest trees wear bright halos
of compliance as the sun rests on the
horizon, setting the atmosphere behind the
trees afire with tones of red, gold, orange
the very shades surrendered to winter.