Skeletal Pines

Weathered gray, sparse
even the living limbs
skeletal pines, evergreens stripped of excess
no pretense, essentials only
exposed at the water’s edge
on each point, each inlet
the bays and streams
emptying into the lake

Watching for birds perched
high in the dead gray branches
The gray broken only
by the rust, the café au lait
exposed sinew, where the trees have split
revealing the center;
maybe by spindly needles
holding on against the winds
blowing across the lake.

July 27, 2008
Squam Lake, NH, July 26, 2008