Salal: for Rob

Salal grows in the darker places,
like love, and, like love,
takes hold in the shadows.

Beneath the upright canopy of
cedar and fir, rigid as principles,
salal unfolds, like love,
and spreads, like shadows,
across the darker places,
protected by the discipline of
fir and cedar, out of the sun,
a haven for the hunted thing.

A soft bed for the soldiers of
the forest, when discipline
fails, and principles cannot
sustain.

           A soft bed, like
love, and a memorial, green
as shadows, red as blood.