Mill Creek Marsh October 25, 2016

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McFaul October 24, 2016

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Sterling Lake October 20, 2016

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October, 2016

October sun shines on the foliage palette

Glowing color codes to identify the trees

Shades of red and yellow standing out

Against the clear blue sky.

Advancing color seeps in the dark of night

Touching first the outside ends of branches

Flowing from the leaf edge to the stem

Peeling away the living green.

There is no need to recognize each kind of tree

To enjoy the transition of translucent light

Filtered through the seasonal leaves

Before the next wind gust plucks them away.

There is a hidden life of trees for us to discover

Like the giant oak passed by the other day

Standing there in the old church graveyard

Limbs stretched out over the huge trunk.

Today reading the news story that the tree is dead

Died last summer in the August heat wave

Thought to be 600 years old, older than the cemetery

Witness to all that has come and gone around it.

The trees cannot communicate with us directly

Living in a different time frame

Providing their own sustenance

Rooted to the global warming earth.

The generation of leaves that will soon crunch underfoot

Signal through their colors that they are retired

Their days of photosynthesis work completed

With next year’s buds formed on the tree of life.