A wingspan of ash, she scours the sky for signs of a way forward.

Beneath, the writhing landscape of a future so foreign we cannot yet comprehend which color she will be.

Now is a tree,

a place that is made of history.

Feel with your fingers

for lines etched in the bark,

the future is there

I’ve seen a million sunsets and sunrises, yet each day still dawns with new surprises. As the sun peaks its golden rays over the green mountains, Vermont’s future stretches out with new horizons.

You want to know what I fear? I fear change. Change comes and goes and leaves things different than they once were. Some change is good, while some is malevolent. Change kills and creates. 

I remember my first day in the Green Mountain State

Astonishingly lush with trees filling the sky

Some locals called us flatlanders--we laughed

In 2050,

In Vermont:

I hope there will be

the same amount

of forest,

but there may

be less

as there is now

from 1990.

I hope my children

will know