Revolting Green

Fence posts

road markers

a concrete bridge buttress

mounds of shingle

flash by the car window

as we race toward Lewis Pass

and all those straight-backed

beech trees

hemming us in

- at rest now, but waiting –

row upon row upon green row

- at ease now, but waiting -

silent ranks of a vast standing army

- waiting till it’s time -

poised to take back the battered earth

from the clumsy humans

who’ve mismanaged it long enough

One dark and stormy night

the tempest will give his signal

the forward line will drop to their bellies

blocking these forest roads

and this army will move out

crashing down hillsides

rolling across the plains

rising up in every village and city

blocking all exits

There will be no holding back

their creaking, rustling advance

but they won’t make their move

till the oil crisis has paralysed us

and chainsaws no longer have

any power to intervene

This will be a bloodless revolution

because by then the humans will know

that we have no right to resist.