Pastoral

Bold, brash sun overhead

At twelve o’clock

Shines down on all below.

Light powers through clean air -

Sky bright, and light blue.

No clouds.

No wind.

Ancient hardwoods stand bare and aloof -

Oblivious to my presence

And admiring eyes,

Like stoic, old sentinels —

Weathered and unafraid.

Ground rustles here and there,

Things in the underbrush -

Moving.

Leaves dropped in fall

Lie where the fell,

Curled and brown —

Fallen down

Until scattered by a sudden breeze;

Drifting,

And softly resting again.

Glen Hines is the author of six books, including the recently published Welcome to the Machine, all available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. His writing on sports, the outdoors, military service, and the bright and dark sides of American culture has been featured in Sports Illustrated, The Concussion Legacy Foundation, Task and Purpose, The Human Development Project, Kirkus Book Reviews, and elsewhere. Kirkus recently called Welcome to the Machine “An often-compelling examination of a sport’s sins from a man with an insider’s view.” He was inducted into the Authors Guild in 2022.