"Broken" by Sheila Wellehan

Broken

Hundreds of trees are broken.
Wreckage makes these woods new and strange,
transforming trails I’ve walked half my life

so that I have to look
and think about where I’m going.

I crawl under a massive fallen fir blocking the path
instead of taking an extra moment to walk around it.

In the seconds I’m beneath it,
I realize that if it slipped, it could hurt me,
break me,

and I want to be all broken up like the forest,
broken and all brand-new.

Photo Credit: Grey Pulliam