At Tree Line

Observations at Tree Line in Rocky Mountain National Park

A herd of elk lazes
In the sub alpine valley
They bend and quietly
Eat the still green grass
Brown shapes like the earth
Against earth and sky
Now and again
One chases another
Across the small
Clear mountain pond
Perhaps a bull after a cow,
It's nearly time for the rut
Below them, reddish brown trees
By the thousands
Give unnatural tone
To the vertical mountain carpet
To us with numbered years
It is devastating to see
But this is nature's way
To make room for a new forest
For fir and aspen and
Spruce and other pines
The brown needles will fall
And there will be
The lean standing trunks
Before they fall too
On this day
The cloud fingers reach
Deep into the canyon nooks
Gracing the landscape
With moisture
Winter will be soon and the
Greenness will move down
The mountain slopes
With the elk following
Day by day
The tundra will go dormant
And the strong winds will
Buffet the rocky ledges
And the fragile tundra and
Dwarf trees of tree line
Their roots clutching
Lest they blow away


Copyright 2009 - Mindy Makuta (aka MyFairLadyah)
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