Vine Maple

Kevin Schafer/Photodisc/Getty Images

You found me in your forest
Near the foot of a full grown fir
I noticed your flock of leaves
Delicate and perfect and proud
Each choosing its own green
Shimmering silently
In the filtered light of the forest
Tremouring truthfully
In the delicate breeze of my breath

I am called to notice you again
Your leaves so bright in this light
Attached to the dark woody thread
Of your forest stems
Lifting them above the rich littered earth
And offering them to the highest of heavens

Seven lobes on each perfect leaf
Health, happiness, generations, generosity
Humbleness, forgiveness and understanding
Steps that were walked by ancestors
Thousands of years ago
And just as the salmon return
To greet this land and to find their purpose
These leaves returned
To lift their stems heavenward