Silly

Looking back, how silly now it seems That in the forest I would name two trees. Now I’m leaving, now I say goodbye, To those two trees, to Ith and Wildernai. Roaming through the wastelands of the north, I ran, I walked, I climbed, and I went forth To claim as my possession that green wood, And I’d forever keep it if I could. The shade was lost when autumn took their leaves; Now winter still, the world so snow white breathes. I named the first and second, now I stand Beneath their barren limbs, like outstretched hands. A world so green that you would never know Its frozen winter blankets it in snow Is what I saw beneath the sapphire sky The summer I named Ith and Wildernai. It was a while ago I saw that waste, So to the forest land did I make haste. In that world so barren, there they are, The naked lords who reach up toward the stars. Hello again, my friends, so strong and tall! You’ve seen the greenest summer, but the fall Returned to change the season, warm and bright, And to replace your foliage with white. The silent solitude that breathed me in Exchanged for hibernation, cold, and wind Will come again to claim her from the snow – The home of those two trees I used to know. Until that time, however, they will wait, Still dancing with their graceful, gliding gait; So patient as I know I’ll never be, For I’m a human child, and they’re two trees. So, reaching to the sky, I pluck a twig – One from Wildernai and one from Ith, One from Ith and one from Wildernai, I say my last to them and say goodbye. Looking back, how silly now it seems That in the forest, I would name two trees.