In the morning, beneath your canopy the whole world glows a growing green.
If I started to climb your branches now, by midnight I could touch the stars.
You no longer tell time by new rings.
Now as a beam, you measure time
by the nights and days of shelter you provide,
absorbing laughter and tears into your fibers and history.
The Great Spirit resides here, peacefully presiding over us.
The wind still holds the echos of the Abenaki’s footsteps.
The soil cradles our carefully tended dreams.
Like visitors from another planet they appear suddenly and without notice.
Their other worldly beauty is hypnotic. You need not taste them to receive the magic.
When smoke has choked the blue from your sky
and grey seems the color of eternity, hang on to hope
for it can keep you afloat and mend your tattered faith.
Until the crops have given their full yield
you may rest in the high weeds with the moon flower.
When it is time to till again you will carry the full weight of a man and his dreams.