Night Wind

Cindy Liang, Del Norte High School, graduating in '26 February 11, 2023

Photography by Polaris*

When the night wind howls in the spring

Whipping around the branches of the trees

Shaking their green newborn buds,

Onto the floor

Carpeted with the shriveled former leaves

Stained with their tree’s red sap

When the night wind howls in the summer

Slithering through the treetops

Sneering at the green leaves

Too young to be slaving

but old enough to remember

Their brethren falling as they will

Onto the floor

Carpeted with the shriveled former leaves

Stained with their tree’s red sap

When the night wind howls in the fall

Bearing down upon the burned bark of the tree

Whipping bark from wood

Oozes red sap

The tree trembles and the withering leaves fall with the seeds of the tree

Onto the floor

Carpeted with the shriveled former leaves

Stained with freshly split red sap.

When the night wind howls in the winter

Bringing white snow from the heavens upon the trees

Trees whose leaves have long since fallen

Trees whose bare twigs tremble in the howling wind

Trees fall in a flurry of ebony wood and broken branches

Onto the dirt floor

Carpeted with the carcasses of former trees

Stained with dried red sap

In the white snow