Shimmering Tree
written by: Sterling Warner
Cotton clouds caress the pinkish-blue horizon
looking down on the Cascade Mountain side
fully covered with spruce, red cedar, Douglas-fir
and Western hemlock that frame the valley floor
like sentry walls on an evergreen crater, ominous
yet inviting, luxurious but foreboding, cautionary
and inviting. I hiked for hours along a sacred path
steep slopes transitioned to flatter terrain
then lead to a dale where sparsely scattered
Alpine Dwarf Scrubs emerged from grasslands
cowering like paupers overwhelmed by abundance
all the while marveling at nature’s immodest majesty.
Westerly winds blew, lightning bolts forked and struck
vale land and vegetation near and far, far and near,
its electric halo baptizing all it touched with radiance.
I searched for shelter finding none then crouched
on the ground, feet together, unable to resist a glimpse
of the bluish-ultraviolet emissions all around us,
thrilled by the prospect of witnessing St. Elmo’s Fire
cocking my head to the right, I beheld a lone spruce
confront a corona discharge causing luminous plasma
to glimmer, the entire tree to shimmer and emit
the sound of angelic electric lips hissing and buzzing
enhancing the unearthly coronae glow on needle tips.
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