Did cloud float in joy, did tree stand in thought
before we stepped back, or was that the start?
Can we witness the glory of creation
without standing apart?
And so, does the tree still stand, still
feel the leaf-kiss of the wind?
We never told it to stop.
In its place, stoic, patient to the end.
And too, the hummingbird caught mid-hover, over
uplifted flower, will it fly forever?
Its furious heart racing,
over treed ridges and watery gulfs, stopping never?
And the indecisive squirrel, paws held in supplication,
startled to flight, a gray flag rippling across the road.
Scouring its hidden burial ground,
forever searching acorns secretly stowed.
If tree stands and squirrel searches,
if hummingbird floats in the air,
what of we who first felt the power,
do we still remember what we saw, and where?
—
Mac Mestayer is an experimental physicist recently retired from Jefferson Lab, a national accelerator center for nuclear physics located in Newport News, Va. His research focused on the quark structure of protons and neutrons. His hobbies include hiking, bird-watching, wood sculpture and poetry. He lives In Williamsburg, Va. with his wife Kathi.
