The Choosing Poem by Dawn Hogarth-burton

As the season crawled across the fields
It sent a signal in the silence
The hemlocks sensed it
Upheld crisp and blackened umbels in a
Stark thrust to the winter sky,
Brandished their seed in the
Last hope of proliferation.
The winter did not care
It had come to take, not give, to moulder down the done-with
To perform its harsh sweep-away.
As life paused it took inventory, cast about and chose
Without emotion that which would see the spring,
That which would endure
And what it would shunt beyond this world
Leaves tamped down to ditch and death
By winter's silent foggy breath
To be seen here nevermore.