We Are

Grief older than the sea

Rawer than the cliff-face

Rips at the tops of the grove

We are giants, we are holy

Trembling is not in our nature

But our roots are being shaken

There is death colouring the sky

Slashing through the pines

And the taste of it is bitterness

Smell the sulphur as the lightning

Strikes,  splits an elder to the ground

The thunder booms triumphant

And we know the game is on - but

We bend together, try for grouping

Try for strengthening - stand as one

It is cyclical we know and can tell

This through the rings that count

Our age - but we also know the time

And feel it to the marrow of our wood

When the sky grows copper bright

And then is limned with lightning too

We whisper urgently as we huddle

Ever closer listening as the storm

Begins to take apart our lower limbs

It sounds like hunting season as shots

Are ringing out - each time a branch

Breaks off and one of us comes closer

To dying while the storm goes raging on

The storm goes raging on bringing death

With every crash, every flash, every sound

And all we can do in our terror, in our fear

Is stand bravely, and hold to our truth

We are older than the wind, we are ancient

We have outlived such chaos before

We must trust we will outlive this

As some of us fly apart in the fierceness

Of the end of days, the rest carry on

It is our destiny, our fate and we embrace it

We are the ones, we will stand tall, we are.

S.E.Ingraham