Satisfied

Jack and I walked the winding hilly gravel road,

We had driven a mile into the Refuge near our house,

parked the SUV in a clearing and headed out..

The once beautiful forest of hills and ravines,

now scarred by bulldozers and chainsaws

So many stumps and fallen poplar left lying to rot. 

Why is man so careless with beauty?

I felt like we were being watched,

but saw no one.

Maybe it was God...

We walked for a while..

Neither of us wearing orange,

it being Deer season,

and with the local lack of respect for the word "refuge";

the sound of shotgun fire off in the distance spooked me a bit.

Jack kept darting into the woods hoping to see a squirrel

his white coat standing out among the brown sumac and dense autumn thicket.

The wood was silent, too silent

nothing moved among the torn timber

I could have wept but for the joy of Jack..

We drove out of the wounded forest with the windows down.,

Tom Waits roaring, "I will be Satisfied!"

 

wkm

Oxford