DO THEY KNOW?

by Melanie Choukas-Bradley

My nature app is as baffled as I

Along the upland trail

Above Rock Creek

In the wild wooded heart of Washington, DC

 

The forest floor is mantled in unfamiliar green

Paired leaves with parallel veins

An emerald carpet, enigmatic

Until recognition dawns

Sprouts of American beech, thousands

Are gathered in ritual circles

Around the smooth gray trunks of their parent trees

Who rise from the earth like standing stones

A menace is advancing

In the wake of chestnut blight

Dutch elm disease, woolly adelgid

And emerald ash borer, marching toward the capital

Beech leaf disease, as determined as Civil War General Jubal Early,

Not quite present yet but promising a deadly campaign

Could it be the Rock Creek Park beeches got word through a signal corps

Beyond our understanding, with news traveling by root or forest atmosphere? 

If only we had known what was coming for us

And thrown down our own green gauntlet

Melanie Choukas-Bradley lives in the beautiful yet besieged capital city of Washington, DC. She is the author of  City of Trees, A Year in Rock Creek Park and Wild Walking. Many of her poems have appeared in The New Verse News.

IN THE PRESENCE OF PEACE

by Ron Shapiro

 

Photo by Ron Shapiro

On the Metro towards DC, I feel

a sense of excitement and anticipation,

a call for peace, an invitation to reflect,

to be mindful, to remember who we are.

 

Arriving at the Lincoln Memorial over

looking the Reflecting Pool, I notice

the always steadfast Washington Monument

while the Capitol seems smaller today.

 

From my history of anti-war protests

towards the government and its reckless

policies, I wanted to experience the antithesis

of such mass gatherings voiced with rage.

 

To witness people pausing their busy lives,

leaving behind their troubles and woes,

to assemble with the intention of offering

gratitude for these two dozen Tibetan monks

 

with a message of love, peace and kindness,

crossing borders of red and white states,

honoring this country’s dream of diversity,

equality and hope. Nothing magical about

 

their intention and effect on others. Just

like-minded people inhaling and exhaling

together in their presence, listening to words

of sacred communion uplifting the darkness

 

from this country and the world. Without

any mention of politics today, only signs of

peace, acceptance and kindness sauteed

with a joyful spirit reflected in smiles.

 

And rather than most everyone holding 

a phone, flowers grace their hands. 

though a large crowd, elbow-to-elbow,

thousands and thousands if I had to guess.

 

A stillness in the cool afternoon winter air

as the first monk appeared, walking barefoot,

smiling, his positive energy pulsating into

my chest. Was that a tear on my cheek?

 

Hands clasped, my fingers touching, offering

homage to their long journey of 2300 miles

over 15 weeks, rekindling a feeling of peace,

inviting the light of a new day into this land.

Ron Shapiro, an award-winning teacher, has published over 20 poems in publications including Nova Bards 24 & 25, Virginia Writers Project, The New Verse News, Poetry X Hunger, Minute Musings, Backchannels, Gezer Kibbutz Gallery, All Your Poems, Paper Cranes Literary Magazine, Zest of the Lemon and two chapbooks: Sacred Spaces, Wonderings and Understory, a collection of nature poetry.