the day the trees claimed me

though flesh and bones are sixty,

this morrow unfurrows
my quarter century name day,

when
a grudging judge
accepted a timorous grafting
onto
the Hawthorn family tree,

amidst
roses and raspberries
and
such likened muchness.

*

from the deer family finding

my whipper snapper self,

attending me
till the shades
of shady parents showed up,

sprinkling heady threads
in fading,
sleep brushed moments
for some time
to come;

past a Northern Michigan
tumble downed teen's
rooted sleeping roost,

where
gazing through branches

at the twinkling of stars

lifted me into
the ineffable embrace
of
a wondrous force,

inexpressibly happy,
and
perfectly safe;

to
the spirited litany
of curious critters
who
seem to always
know my address,

tingling me in comfort
with their twitters,
skitters and rustlings;

it has always been nature

twining my spritely,
scraggly,

crinkled lilting

tatters

to

the earth.

*

i put it down to one of those
goblin snatchlings
gone astray,

that
dropped an elf like me
amoungst
the spooky presumes
of
religious loons.

but
nature went
and found me out

and held me in its sway,

bidding us all
the
love it fits

amidst the blink of day.

- Andrew Evan Hawthorn, the 21^st of October, 2018