Woods

The woods beckon

As they always have.

Light enters, scattered

And fragmented,

Cascading fully now.

The brush that breaks

Now underfoot,

Was once new and growing

Reaching for the sun.

Leaves turn their face

Toward our brightest star

As the ground beneath them

Slowly moves,

Imperceptibly

From dawn to dusk.

Now, yearning in the night -

In the darkness -

For the break of day.

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.