Deadfall Poem by Karen Siewert

I came to see the stars shine
Like silver-headed pins in the blue-black sky

I came to see rocks
Carved from the immense and everlasting
erosion
Of time and wind and water
Colored red
By the oxidation of the iron at its core

I came to see cliffs of sandstone
Rearing high into the cloudless blue sky

I came to see a huge chasm
Created through the herculean upheaval
Of chunks of moving earth
And tens of thousands of gallons
Of pure, glacial-cold water

But what I found
Was sparse blackened grass
Edging a meadow
Colored a washed-out celery green

Splintered and broken gray-barked trees
Laying amidst a plethora
Of battered and broken branches

And smelly stagnant water
Over which a wreath
Of buzzing no-see-ums
Endlessly circles

This was to have been
My chance
To be more
Than I was, am or ever could be

But as is the fate
Of all mankind……….I failed