Tamarack

A forest soldier still armored in golden chain guards the Canadian Shield from brooding vines and horizons gray In November's wind, it holds its yellow needles like comrades clasped in feeble arms of wood This tree, an x-ray of late autumn's soul, glows with its ocher pins, deaf to bids of meddling snow. Soft sounds, these falling fibres beating war drums 'gainst an early winter foe Protester at the gate of cold tamarack's ramshackle yellow As shouts of autumn's glory still Poem composed 2020 Revised: February 1/2022