Nature's Blueprint

On a windy, overcast spring afternoon the 

forest interior's light-mute atmosphere speaks 

compellingly of rain yet rain is withheld. On 

the banks of the stream settled within the forested 

ravine grow  the earliest of spring wildflowers

coltsfoot, their brilliant yellow flowerheads 

stubbornly closed for lack of sun. In the forest 

understory the stalks of honeysuckle and dogwood 

boast bright green foliage and from the still-damp 

soil of the forest floor trilliums are abandoning 

the stifling darkness of the winter months. In the

stream, a Mallard drake leisurely paddles, dips

for algae and moves on, never straying too far 

from the site where its mate has settled to nest.

In his inherent  loyalty lies nature's formula of 

survival where her creatures breed and bear young

nurture and protect them to carry on the endless 

cycle of birth and death obeying the seasons

and the inherited reasons for primal existence.