On a visit to the Marshlands of the Hackensack

 

Dead wood now, at deepest core

remnants of organic memory

…… a tree that once was

 

Building artifacts

of lignified vasculature

rigidly mortified

 

yet so sweetly aromatic

… an embalmed corpse

from an erstwhile copse

 

transformed now ……

a bridge to tread on

or perhaps

 

a log to tarry awhile

and reminisce about times past

or perhaps

birdhouses.

They are intricate

these laces of cellulose ……

 

driftwood, rotting wood,

lumber, timber

dead trees

In the Marshlands ……