Forest Giants

Some among them, long fallen
yet do their part engaged in nature's
eternal plans of regeneration
their grizzled bark rotting in
contact with the moistly fecund
forest floor to become plant nurses
enriched by soil deposits and
decayed matter to nurture the
germination of seeds blown here
and there of discrete vegetation
and tree seedlings alike. They once
were the elderly giants of the forest
curious of all that partnered their
colossal shapes and height, shaggy
bark home to mosses hanging like
beards as testament to their venerable
age in the forest hierarchy. Ferns
nestle possessively around their
broad trunks, roots digging deep
for sustenance under the forest floor
until decline inevitably leads to 
the death of a giant, toppled by
age and disease, prepared over
time to invest its decay in 
succession, its waning resources
enabling formation of new life.