Perils of Forest Life

Magical, mystical, ethereal the
forest valley was bathed in a pearl-white
mist lifting the gloom from the interior
rising and falling in swells from the
frozen creek undulating through its
banks newly lofted with fresh snow.
No sun to penetrate the leaf-naked
forest canopy this day only the wind
shushing through the evergreens
their needle-pointed tops nodding
and clacking against each other. The
newfallen snow absorbed all sound
until the high-decibel cry of a giant
red-headed woodpecker pierced the
silence as the bird reached its destination
and the near woods drummed with the
percussion of its wrecking beak ripping
great shards of bark rhythmically and
mercilessly leaving great gaping wounds
in the old tree's trunk where spring sap
would rush dismally up from its roots
and finding the open gap overflow to
the trunk and the forest floor in the slow
and agonizing death of an elder tree
playing its part in nature's revolving
door architecture of life and death.