Wildflowers

A high wind hustled scalloped
white clouds through a periwinkle
blue sky where the sun sat
roguishly on a throne little used
these past days when rain
thundered over the mountains
leaving the forest below sodden
its trees engulfed in green excess.
The forest trail is well steeped
in muck, runoff from the forest floor
saturated beyond capacity. Wild
rhododendron and azalea past
bloom give way to bright white
bunchberries, daisies and perky
partridgeberry creeping between
mountain sorrel. Buttercups
yellow and orange hawkweed
glow their invitation to Yellow
Admirals floating from one
bright flowerhead to the next.
Brittle old yellow birch have
fallen, their rotting trunks
caught in mid-air descent by
newer, hale trunks supporting
the ancients' fall, while others
lie prostrate across the trail;
duck, clamber or skirt.