"You will surrender all your leaves
or anger us again and feel our deadly,
familiar freezing rain upon your defiant,
flaming redness, all your golden tatters
flying helpless before the slashing fingers
of my winds!

All this temporary glory of yours will be
trampled into the discouraged ground while
our triumphant crystalline voices breathe
slogans into the sky which you will never read!

Where we rule, nothing moves without our permission
and our will is a howling sub-zero wind in an
eternal night.

Withdraw therefore strategically below the surface,
close your frosted eyes while my tender, white,
blanketing snow fills the nests of the panicked
and escaping birds, and a quiet multitude of
creatures burrow among your powerful roots.

Further south, the constant warmth and feverish
competition would only exhaust you - nature
down there is much too rebellious and unruly -
you wouldn`t like it, believe me.

Hey, Maple Tree, never mind. You can always "leave"
in the spring. Haw! Haw! Haw!"

12/16/2017