Poem / Hiking With Epicurus

While hiking a ridgeline I could espy,

A downed Ponderosa lying in State.

Writhing, arthritic, thrusting toward sky,

Its gesticulant limbs mocked at the Fates.

Having once reigned over forested place,

-Raging fires, tempests, winter gales withstood-

Mere termites will, his memory erase.

Princely pines turned to husks of rotting wood,

Is a thought unsettling to mortal hearts;

Hourglasses emptying of sand and pride.

I asked that sage, his wisdom to impart,

The fallen snag answered, on the wind decried,

"I was not - I was - I'm not - I don't care",

At once loosing the bonds.... hope and despair.