These trees don’t ask
who will inhabit
the forest they will become

These trees don’t plan the canopy
or what will change
when their limbs join at the top
and seal out the sky

The undergrowth responds
to what’s here at this season,
this place in the cycle of succession

They will meet the changes
in the full on way they live,
as will I, as will I.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 26, 2021