Paper Barks
If they were teenagers
they could be called dishevelled
their shirts hanging out half mast ties hair ruffled
some casually gathered some laid back
they could be noted as cool with rumpled attitudes
here on our track
they generously shade our way
their leaves startling with the sparkle
of sun catchers
their caopies a haven of birds
their ruffled bark craggy rough uneven
in tawny tones of toffee taupe and tan
and like teens finally become adults
they shed their sheets of bark in growing
peeled off bark enough
for a poet to write words
of inspiration for the journey.
