She wrapped me from the winter's chill
In seasoned arms that wore a shell of crusted oak,
While in the core that lay beneath
Her sapwood warmed my sprouting seed,
Her soothing oils smoothed out
The wrinkled sheath of my beginnings.
She lulled me in the April breezes,
Clinging to my bursting bud
And wisely, gave a lithesome bow
To sudden, frenzied furls of gust.
She raised me to the summer sky
That I might find the light of day,
And hid me from the cloudy mass
That menaced my naïveté'.
I played upon her sheltered bough
Tugging carelessly;
Dancing on her straining stem
As saplings do, unwittingly.
The fall approached and changed my shade,
She knew the time had come.
She loosed me from her autumn's arm
In tune with nature's song.
I am a leaf inside the wind
Searching, still my mother's limb…