October 15*

old ragged fir on the point, steadfast and solid
has no boundaries, never ends:

     anchored to the earth
     held up by the earth

     roots commingling with slather of microbes and wandering worms
     incessantly probing the dark soil, farther, farther

     gases of the air spewing back and forth through its needles
     sending stray molecules of fir out on the winds, forever

     suspended by the sky
     pulled up by the sun

more present and more precarious
more like a rock and more like a memory, every year

*Copyright 2010 by Luther Allen. This poem appears in The View from Lummi Island.
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Photo: Jason Goldstein/DNR