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Things Are Breaking in the Forest

No one hears the snaps
and no one sees the snow
tumble with the falling branch.
Freezing rain is so light;
it is silent to all around.

The sound starts when you
move your feet. The trees
don’t listen. They struggle
under the weight trying —
once again — to hold up the world.

The forest oozes a sense of failure.
No one can hold this up.
Some reckoning with life
vanishes. There is a dying,
and the snow keeps falling.

What am I doing in this world?
Everything leans away.
Forward is wrong.
Backward is wrong.
I cannot stay where I am.

I see something and do not move.
I see nothing and do not move.
Any motion kills the silence.
The forest does not care if I move or breathe.
Yet the silence cannot hide the fact…

Things are breaking in the forest.

Anthony Signorelli
January, 2023

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Published inPoetry