Carol Oberg
He said that couple over there
won’t live much longer
too old, too frail, they’ll either die
one soon after the other
or need some outside assistance
to pull them out of
their home on this earth.
I thought why branch out into
such a crude judgment of them
then asked myself why
are the lives most vibrant and lovely
the hardest to look directly at
in slow, aging decay-
I can remember them both younger
strong together, resolutely poised
as they firmly stood their ground
with a double pride born to reach skyward
and always it appeared to me they
slow danced on a breezy autumn day.
Now they lean into each other for loving support
their alike skinniness exposed to the world
the helpless bent shape they are in
that poor upstanding pair who once
weathered every storm that came their way
without a complaint one could hear.
Truthfully
one couldn’t see one without the other one
that forever touching elegant couple
of birch trees.
Carol began her writing career with Blue Mountain Arts, Inc., publishing poetry on greeting cards worldwide, for many years. She has been published in The Avocet, Burningword, Harbinger Asylum, Garbanzo, Artifact Nouveau, New Plains Review, Bacopa Literary Review and others.