Nature’s magnificence arrests and astounds.
I, the average onlooker, observe a red maple sapling sprouting scarlet leaves
while an ordinary day’s sunset– primitive by comparison– paints hues of crimson that compliment the fledgling foliage.

 

My sharp eye spots this contrasting correlation.
I sip garnet liquid– from fresh grapes nonetheless– and consider our world’s fragile balance

in pieces

like scattered rubies buried along bleeding mountains whose extinction rests in the breeze beneath a radiance of cardinals’ wings.