"Buried in the arms of these woodlands

He stood watching her and  protecting her

With the Warrior's virtues of courage and bravery

Shielding his only living young daughter and unborn child,

He watched in thoughts of deep intensity.

 

His family now so safely hid beneath the bushes

Of this snow layered ground,

He looked down and smiled in warmth at them

Contentment lied within him

For as a father and a man he could see that they were safe.

 

With words unspoken in his head

His heart sung songs of reassurances,

Now that his family were all in stillness well hid

And protected in the overgrown parts of earth,

And the thickness of a knowing quiet tree.

 

He hears her facial expressions that sends pleads

To not let the strangers of their much loved land

Find their toddler daughter and the baby,

Growing inside her womb.

 

So much he wants to climb down from this bough of tree,

And pull her body close to his,

So much he desired in his heart to have her and his children

In the comfort of their once heated and humble home,

That these intruders have now so joyfully put into flames.

 

Instead he gives her a nod that her

And their children rest in safeness

From the dangers

That these strangers bring.

 

And more than that he sees with his eyes

How these odd men of cowardice,

Seem to gain more pleasure in plundering the homes

Of where all his people had lived

Before they came in a unwelcoming way.

 

These men with cold stares of the eye and no respect for any living thing,

Have stopped their looking for the living,

As they eat all the food that the women had stored

For the winter season that is upon them now.

 

His mind gathers much courage as he continues to see much

Upon this tree with thickets of branches on each bough,

He knows they will leave soon and his people

Will come slowly out to begin a journey,

Looking for another place for their camps and home.

 

His thoughts begin a process of thoughts of brighter moments in their life,

Times when he and her as a newly joined couple

Would watch in stillness,

Looking in wonder as the Eagles would glide,

With outstretched wings.

 

Carefully these Eagles would fly

Often with food in their talons,

With a slow steady move in winds 

These winged majestic ones would fly with a focusness

To bring food to the nest of their young ones.

 

And he remembers hunting with her male family members

To bring fresh meat home to share with all

That resided in the circle of their homes and camp,

All related in blood and spirit were these ones that he loved,

Just as much as the trees and these woodlands where he stood.

 

Grinning in proudness he was then,

As she admired the wealth of food,

He gave to all that shared the fire and the warmth from this

Happy encampment of two lovers so recently wed,

Knowing only of the certainty of the love that burnt inside of them.

 

She would comment often of his skill in hunting

And how his bravery filled her with good thoughts

Then she would lay her head upon the strongness of his arms,

He'd then pull her closer to him and hold her in a tight embrace,

And tell her of the great love he held for her inside his soul.

 

Forming ice he felt as he leaned against this thick shelter of a maple tree,  

The steel long rifle he always hunted with was ready and cocked

Yet he only hoped that these bearded angry short stocky and tall men

Would just hurry up with their stealing drunken rage,

And go back to the neatly plowed fields of their homes and forts.

 

He only longed to taste the continuity of peace

That he and his people had each day as they went about their lives

In this place of wooded lands of good game with unbelievable skies in the morn,

And in the evening and nights they were blessed

With the brightness of the moon with falling and shooting stars.

 

In the hidden bushes filled with over-grown long curling twigs,

His pretty wife peeps up her head,

And man and wife catches each other's eyes

With a message of hope that these mean spirited men will soon be gone,

And their unspoken words not only touches them but also their little ones.

 

All this family interaction on a bough,

Carried out in a protective winter season,

That gives a bitting frost to those

Who do not understand the quiet thoughts

And help one gets when leaning on a woodlands maple tree."

 

~~Chi Arthur-Williams