Plants

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Buttressed, tree-root shark-fins thrashing

Fierce, bleached, wooden shark-teeth gnashing

Thrusting through the heaving froth

Of forest ocean's leafy cloth

As I arrived, a bit too late,

A branch-fish met an awful fate

A wood-shark, lurking in the shade

A supper of that creature made!

Surprised, that Eden, in the wood

Undisturbed, and quiet, should

Be changed into a killing ground,

Where carnivores and prey are found!

What treachery, my playful gaze

That on bucolic woodland preys

I must let go, these fantasies,

And let the fish revert to trees

          pictures by s. greenberg

I saw a tree that was frowning at me

With only the faintest nose and eyes

It felt as if it (or he, or she)

Was wearing a grooved and bark-ish disguise 

Just like its downturned, and rigid, lip

Its head, high up, lurked frozen in place

And gave neither wag, nor slightest dip

Of its dark and completely inanimate face!

Like nearby trees, it made no noise

Mute, as I walked there, quiet, along

Since it lacked any words, and it had no voice

I never learned quite what it thought was wrong!

A little tree, bending, catching rays

Hides behind the other, bigger trees

Basking in the heady, summer haze,

Untamed spray of hair blown by the breeze

Revelry, contagious, sea of green

Rife with waving flowers, which, by chance

Share the stage, and complement the scene

All of them caught up in gleeful dance!

          picture by s. greenberg

Fountain of fern

Cascading cataract

Flower-flash

Moist mat of moss

Joy to share with a friend!

A rolling hill of rocks on which

Weeds and lichens gather for a rest

Colors - orange, yellow, green, all stitched

Together, in their picnic-outing best