Ayla Fudala, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Verdant turmoil, gusting through
Pools and rivulets
Leading to ten thousand waterfalls
I bask in shadows, finding
Simplicity in solitude
Wheels never turning
Ivy skeletons like cracks
A crater reaching out slow tendrils
Patiently usurping stone
Cloud palaces drift
Immense and unattainable
Heralded by spiraling swallows
Guarded by the old sentinel,
The gray heron
In water life teems
Slipping minnows, grasping larvae
Ever seeking, escaping, regrouping
An elaborate dance, an unfathomable pattern
A performance where the stakes
Are life and death, unwitnessed
Casual prey and indifferent conqueror
On the shores, a riot of grasses
Thrust forth their seeds
An offering to the future
Ferns hang their heads
Adorned with pearls, a gift
From the leaping streams
And towering over all, the protector spirits
Oak and ash, entwined in a rigid cascade
Capturing the sun
Blessing with shade
Ayla Fudala is a writer and artist with a passion for the environmental humanities. She holds a Master's degree in Environment, Culture, and Communication from the University of Glasgow, and recently published the first edition of Biophilia Environmental Humanities Literary and Art Magazine. She is currently based out of Boston, Massachusetts, USA.