Heidi Sherlock, An Undressing
Heidi Sherlock
AN UNDRESSING
Flocks of leaves are a clever ruse.
In a blur of wings
birds betray former seasons
where dappled greens and shadows hang
and hide the arms beneath.
Fitted behind drape of shade and olive hues
a tree is hidden in a loud display,
that burlesque winds of autumn
will slowly strip away.
Leaving gray tones of winter
and months of vulnerable disclosure
when black threaded fingers
of twigs bleed out from branches
in an august ashen flow—
a willful clenching of the sky.
Author’s Comments: The poem was inspired by the beauty of trees in winter and the appearance of a flock of birds cast against the cold, twilight sky. Stripped bare the tree is at once vulnerable and beautiful; it seems that the former always precedes the latter. For trees and men there is often a discomfort in such nakedness. The birds, however, are oblivious. What we could learn from the birds!
