Man stands inside a sea of abyssal trees,
Eyes open, yet the mind’s eye cannot fathom,
A single tree is spurned and falls into silence unseen.
Thought reaches out, still groping through the void,
The trunk that fell in fury starts to burn in wrong light,
Man walks inside a sea of abyssal trees.
No clue remains; the hours already lost to the dark,
Two trees lean close and regard the trampled ferns,
A cluster is spurned and falls into silence unseen.
A path once cut this way, now swallowed if one squints,
Now wrath has risen; trunks lean in silent judgment,
Man runs inside a sea of abyssal trees.
The canopy contracts like a vast eyelid on dissent,
Too late the warning at the threshold of no return,
A wood of trees is spurned and falls into the void unseen.
Man, rent, lashes at the wood in malcontent,
Smoke climbs forever into the outer dark; he will not return.
Man sprints beside a sea of burning trees—
The wood lies burned to ash, save one that always stood unseen.
author’s notevillanelle