Serene is a placid lake on the television’s scrambled screen
Blissful is a breath in tree pose before I lose my balance
Rugged is a man standing on a cliff like he owns it, pretending survival
Beautiful is the canopy buffeted by sunlight, not the spider in my hair
Reverent is our collective gaze toward the river though the car window

Moss at the base of the trunk soaks up water from last night’s rain
Trees transpire, water coursing through xylem
Birds I can’t identify call to each other, threatening, beckoning, yearning
The forest lives.
It is.