Dancing in the Wind

It sounds
Like a freight train
Rumbling down the steel rails
Crossing the country

I hear the ramping up
And the whispering wane
As the wind 
Traverses the woods

The trees,
Over a hundred feet tall
Sway
Back, forth
Left, right
Circling 
Each to their own music
They arch and spiral
With the wind 
Not fighting it
Just playfully waving

It is curious.
They are all confined
Within the same atmospheric conditions
The gusts travel throughout
But the trees
 Maples, aspens, oaks, evergreens and more
 are unique in their response
There is no chorus line
No limbs kicking in unison

It is a bit of a cacophony
Of movement
Each tree 
Feeling its own rhythm
As it experiences the wind
From its own angle
With its own natural resistance
Its own number of rings
Calling out its age and robustness

Branches leap and lunge with grace
Tree trunks lean and recover 
The power of the wind 
is heard and seen 
in the dance of the trees 

They reside shoulder to shoulder
Grounded deeply in the earth
Roots reaching out
Likely intertwined 
In the subterranean world
Providing solid foundation 
Allowing the trees
To bow to nature
With resilience

The pillars of the forest
Swipe against each other again and again
As they move
Like handheld fans
On a hot summer day.

 A snag
A standing dead or dying tree
Also called a wildlife tree
May succumb to the power of the wind.
The mystery resides
In the survival
Of the healthy, closely clustered
Woody organisms of the woods

Retaining their individuality
They move freely
Branches collide
With grace
And accommodation 
As they dance in the wind.

Let us humans
Listen to the lessons 
Of the trees
As they dance in the winds of change.

Patricia O’Connor
2024