Deep Canyon Tree Poem by Stan Petrovich

He had to climb out from
The blue canyon, a boulder
Chained to one leg,
As a communion or penance,
Into the ponderosas above.
But a thunderstorm evolved,
And screeching charges surrounded him.
And the empty spaces glowed.
He found his way out, now bleeding profusely
From the strangling chain,
And fell under old man juniper,
(South of the hiway) , who was very wise,
And spoke to him comfortingly:
'Do not fear death, young man,
For anything that lives faces its ending.'
'I fear the storm, ' he answered.
'Then shelter under my gray-green foliage,
And my somber berries shall protect you. Rub them into your wounds.'
The young man huddled,
Later finished his labor,
Took to the hiway,
And revisited the old man
Every summer for the rest of his brief life.
When he died he became a baby of the tree's.