NATURE Poem: A Woods Walk, by Ed Ahern

n the fringes of a dense forest
plants poke through ground cover.
Scrawny, light deprived saplings and
ferns snatch at wavering rays of sun.
Scattered throughout, two unlike greens

The poison ivy raises kneecap high,
bunched where it’s easiest to walk.
Loopy shuffles allow passage around
without transferring oil onto pants
and that evening onto hands and face.

The mint keeps vegetative distance
from its brethren and the ivy,
the leaves shiny, the smell faint
until the leaves are crushed underfoot
Or, irresistibly, plucked and chewed.

These two sparse-leafed, patient swales
would be overwashed in open grasses
and wait in uncluttered dimness
for the rot or fire that lets in more light
or the slow death of darkness

Author: poetryfest

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