Resurrection
by Carol Hardee
The massive oak with limbs to kiss the sky
Was upended in a raging, vicious gale.
Vast trunk lay solemnly on grassy knoll,
Still holding were its roots beyond the swale.
And so it seemed, to me, the tree was lost,
A fallen giant helplessly to die,
No more to shelter creatures from the storms,
Nor to feed them with its bountiful supply.
Then some years hence, I hiked that trail again,
Dreading to view the beauty since long dead;
But there along the trunk line, in a row,
The upright branches were now all trees instead.
And thus the steadfast oak had cheated death,
Holding to life with roots embedded deep.
It did not perish in that awful volley
But merely paused awhile as if asleep.
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Rezoned
By Carol Hardee (02/07)
Each year the kestrel races here far from his northern home.
I watch for his arrival every autumn as I drive the winding road,
And one day, he magically appears upon the waving telephone wires
As though he never left this warmer wintertime abode.
This year is different as I drive along the narrow way.
In all his glory, the brightly feathered kestrel perches high and proud.
He sees no changes in the fields and groves that make his home.
He cannot read the signs that line the roadway like a shroud.
But I can read the deadly words impaled upon the cardboard
notices,
Rezoned from agricultural to residential home sites, they say.
With horror, I envision the destruction that will occur
And wish that with the kestrel, I could fly so far away.
Through the many years, I have seen wild families residing there,
Gray fox, opossum, raccoon, tortoise, and sandhill crane-
Soon to lose the place where they were born and raised,
Leaving only a ghost of nature's presence to remain.
So fly little kestrel, call gladly to the wind and rain and sun,
Spared of the dread that encompasses this human heart.
Please grant one final wish to me, while I am earthbound in despair-
Race the darkened clouds above me before you must depart.
.
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Mother, Dear
By Carol Hardee (02/07)
If only I could tell you, mother dear.
That your baby now is cared for every day.
I wish that you could know he's loved and fed
And comforted by us in every way.
You were so badly frightened in the night
And dropped your tiny charge in panicked fear.
When you returned, you found that he was gone.
And though you searched, you could not find him there.
Oh, mother dear, if only you could know
That we will raise your child up well and strong
Until that day when he is finally grown
To return back to the wild where he belongs
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