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Robust torrents in the distance

with a constant violence against rock walls

the ambient feeling of calm permeates all of me

I breathe within the cascade as it removes me from myself

yet, its stillness is upended by a single leaf’s descent

slicing my eye-line and waking my dread

The trees mostly barren now

relinquish the sun and lingering familial grief

The earth smothered with foliage

petty thoughts sinking just as deep

for what could have tarnished such lineage?

I turn away from the deluge and follow the pathway home

alone…

sudden twinge of darksome thought about my brother

for which my condoling spirit capitulates

but must reform to overpower myself again

and the trees, as naked as they are

betray the whispering winds

as I’m swathed by a funnel of foliage

I’ve turned from the path

to cliff’s edge

to restful freedom