Queen in the Woods

 Queen in the Woods

The Mother Oak stands at the edge of the park,

its wide-spread branches dominating the scene,

decades of growth bringing her to her prime,

entangled with millions of life forms around and below.

Thousands of caterpillars feasting on the smooth dark leaves,

and in their turn, birds snapping up the caterpillars for their own feast.

Squirrels scampering through the strong leafy branches,

and an owl quietly standing watch from a hole midway to the top.

The unseen world below the oak’s base

is crowded with webs of roots and microscopic life.

Mycelium offering up its bounty in return for nourishment,

each giving and receiving for their mutual benefit.

Over the years, this mother tree has offered her progeny 

to the world around her: acorns buried by squirrels,

planted near and far, a crop of children still connected to her life force.

And she will support them in the abundant mysterious ways of trees.

When her life is over, her branches and trunk dying,

her body is still there to support the life surrounding her,

small creatures and large, as they all flow with the circle of life,

one inter-connected world, no one alone, forming a sacred whole.