inner art journal

Angel Island oaks
drop heavy acorns: crossed tops
like cartoon buttons
California plants demand
constant childlike scrutiny

Appalachian woods
are pictures every child draws:
pine trees shaped like cones
orange maples dropping leaves
leaving skeleton branches

San Francisco lacks
a proper autumn season
trees shed leaves sometimes
but the timing is random
as budding, blooming, dying are

my mountain childhood
among red rhododendrons:
unremarkable
until I lived among palms
eucalyptus and aloe