alabama pines

gus philipps

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these alabama pines stand tall and proud

you’d have to cock back your head

to admire their peaks

I am told there were more before the hurricanes came

yet looking at them now I could not tell

the chaos they endured

or if they lament their peers that have fallen.

I wonder

did only the young survive?

absorbing the winds

swaying left... swaying right

were youth and flexibility the key to their survival

something that the old ones lacked?

were the old roots too deep

their trunks too strong

that when nature expressed its chaos

they had no choice but to snap,

leaving behind their spectral gravestones

the empty spaces in between.

yet now these pines stand straight

steadfast at their posts

like totems sunken deep into the earth

they are the soldiers protecting this place

towering high in the sky

watching over their lake

their home.