SILVER BIRCHES
Blue-sky silver birches
Lofty banked in skeletal marching lines;
Divided; their tuning-fork tines
Sing soft songs and shiver
With Winter's wasting winds.
Silent sentinel silver birches
Guard their hard-won strips of land
Until; reborn filigree green-fanned
Leaves leap life-loving and shimmer
With Spring's softer breezes.
Modest victors, silver birches
Gently; humbly; waving thin flags,
As unsuspecting Summer brags;
Conceited conqueror of cold, and wisely
Blue-sky silver birches
Store sap-strength for Winter's worst.