Anthropomorphic Understory

The scientist’s inner poet peaks out as he names
her the understory – plants flourishing under her forest’s canopy.
Although most people simply refer to her as ‘the bush.’
A term of affection
extended from her thatched stubby underbrush
to her lofty canopy cousins.

She signals spring by brightening her red dogwood and yellow willow bark.

Birds, bears, and humans make canapé from her
spring green curls of fiddle heads,
summer blue berries and Saskatoons,
autumnal cranberries and rose hips.

While geese and water birds favour the open plains and water, some songbirds
migrate thousands of miles from her boreal to tropical understory.

She is sadly overlooked in the conversion of forest into lumber farms, but struggles on.