Mechanized Forest
What did I see?
laying sideways while the base mourned
white splinters splayed,
a white flag for it had fallen...
erased from the canopy,
where it fervently stood;
a monument to heroism.
Was it wind, or lightning, or a car hurtling through air?
Had anyone heard the fall?
The high pitch as vehicles sped by not stopping,
not caring.
All the branches provided little armour,
decay set in rapidly, smoke rising on occasion from
precision strike;
a scorched earth policy on hot dry days,
the mission seemed natural, and it was,
a mechanized forest...
standing together to let us breathe,
while obscuring the view of the other side,
just the way we like it; a beautiful ravine.
Our tribute to the fallen short lived;
poor splintered tree by the side of the highway,
I wonder how I could ever recall the beauty of
this simple life, having just realized it was forever gone,
my gaze will be upon the hallowed ground,
without consolation,
why not just cut it all down?
We lay waste to the very air we breathe.
The barrens marked with small white crosses,
the trees are gone, the monuments seem so
nondescript, both soldier and tree petrified
in the annals of history.