Across the clearing, branches weave
as trees recall and slowly grieve
their kindred gone now where the road
divides the forest which had flowed
so full and free for centuries
before the scourge of industries
and revolutionary smoke
beclouding lands condemned to choke
and perish for a progress claimed
as plants and creatures flamed and maimed
displaced from peace and native place
expired merely to make space
for humans driven to machine
to soil Earth and scavenge clean
entire woods for carpentry
pursuing life and liberty
without much afterthought of cost
and lesser sense of what was lost.
Wide limbs entwined in silent prayer
memorialize what once thrived there.