November 2nd, 2016
Wednesday, 3 PM
Cloud cover and rain
~55 degrees
The drizzle barely descends through the canopy, so it feels like the leaves are just letting go of water from earlier in the day. I came a little later than I would have like, but I'm glad I didn't make it any later in the day.
Everything is gone! You can see the trail now, because all the leaves are soggy, and look like soiled paper towels. My Taxus brevifolia looks like a drying rack for these damp and droopy leaves.
Clear trails!
My central spot actually has puddles because it's been raining so much. Plants that are less than two feet tall seem to be drooped towards the ground-flattened-especially towards the marsh area that extends from the right and left of my central Thuja Plicata. The leaves at the tops of the salmonberry bushes are finally yellowing, when they were bright green last week. My strange marsh plants will probably be gone by next week- I'm strangely sad to see them go. Almost all of the lady ferns are brown. The horsetails are fallen over- I never knew that they decayed at the same time as other plants. The green that remains really contrast with the burgundy-brown of the fall droppings ( I'm just really tired of saying dying leaves). The moss at the base of the central cedar seems to be melting into the Earth, as if something extremely heavy has sat on every single section of moss that's covering the roots. All the mushrooms are gone as well- I'm not sure if the loss is due to humans.
General picture of my site
Picture of the mossy base area
Fun find: HUGE salmon berry leaf, coming from a bush that has grown about seven feet off the ground, and has started to come into conflict with the droopy branches of the Western Red Cedar.
PART 2 POETRY
20,000 Millimeters Under the Dirt:
Burrow, bury, dive
Under-not over
Hide in the muck
Cower in the mire
Old to New
Can tell just by the looks of you
Your home dies
Your body
Fleshy
Like a newborn.
You
So vulnerable
Writhe in the sunlight
Yearn for a way to escape the bright
and arid
Land above.
Prayer to the Cedar:
Mother
Lend your arms to us
Let your fingers dry our tears
Let your loving arms hang low
to reach us
we
Who seek comfort
From rain
From cold
Your arms embrace us
and your blood
flows
through us.
Prayer to the Stewards:
Give me oak and give me pine
Let these forests stand the test of time
The way summer comes so slowly
But then flees so fast
'til death do us part or until
Winter leaves at last
Thaw these bodies
Thaw these hearts
Post Party Blues:
Sodden napkins litter the living room
The ladies are crying in a drunken stupor over their dates who went home with someone else
Chairs are toppled over
Wine soaks the carpet
The air smells sweet
The remnants of a beautiful person
that left
Only two hours ago.
First is about a worm, second is about the western red cedar, the third to all of us, and the last on the approaching winter.
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