Fagus grandifolia

The beech trunk glows
a radiant cloudy gray
the sole pillar
in a forest roofed by countless overlapping leaves
so dark
so green
so impenetrable
that neither blazing sun
nor gripping wind
disturbs the empty air around the tree
whose roots divide
and sink into fertile
moistened earth
devoid of life
excepting matte gray behemoths
somehow gleaming
in diffuse jade light.