In the forests depth

I look up, my dusk gray raincoat covers my eyes, peeling it back I can see that the sun has been clouded over us, 

I look down at my bright red rain boots that are occupied by other colorful fallen leaves,

ahead is just tall skinny trees misted with fog.

Taking a deep breath in, the atmosphere is 

brisk, fresh, and filled with the musky muddy scent of after rain fall.

As we walk,

silence.

I put my gloved hand out on a tree to balance myself up on a log,

lichen displaces itself on my glove as a new home.

While up on that log I notice something in the nearest evergreen tree. 

I point it out and we walk over,

I am first to get there, I am first to look.

The green tree carefully stabilizes the nest, perfectly shading the eggs from the world.

However the unhatched creatures seem to be foreign to my Nana and I.

Confused I step back, under me a twig snaps

the sky cracks

“We have to go,”

“But what about-”

“They’re fine, c’mon,”

I listen, but I don’t want to,

Those eggs were the only form of true life that we had seen this whole time, they can’t be left alone.

As we walk further and further away

the sky gets dimmer and dimmer.

Darker clouds begin to roll in.

Still the forest is quite of all life

I look back one last time and notice something different

In the nest lies a big mama bird.

In what I thought was silence was the sound of hope coming back to life.