He comes alone, planting himself
On aspen leaves. Behold!
I have outlived Pando the Persistent!
And with only a brief head-start!
The life they swore was infinite
Now keeps an idle heart.
Survey your forest’s limbs and see
They’ve wilted in the heat.
The Trembling Giant’s final fall
Now lies beneath my feet.
They called you Plentiful, but look
At what were once your trees!
A tinderbox of sticks and snags
And other great debris.
You were The Ponderous! But now,
A corpse of equal size.
Slowly decomposing your still-
closing aspen eyes.
Good bye, Pando! And so he goes
While wind swept through the glade.
And nothing moved and nothing lived.
No rustling sound was made.
Ben Knight is a Computer Science student who not only spends his time writing code, but also poetry. The youngest of three children, he was born and raised in Glendale, CA. Recently, he and his partner just got a very cute tuxedo cat named after the Swiss line of sewing machines, Bernina, which is ironic considering what she does to most fabrics.
