Mother Nature Is ...

Mother Nature is a gentle woman,

kind, matronly, and patient,

like an old grandmother, gray-haired,

a brood of grandchildren ‘round,

expecting of us only a kindness

and a respect of things, old, lovingly placed;

but cross her, reach out your hand

to disturb the delicate fragility

there and she’ll slap your hand,

in warning of her authority,

sternly reminding us of our place,

her voice raised, a gentle rain

turned to torrents or withheld,

the earth rumbling, shuttering,

a forest turned to ash and death,

or gale forces lashing at the shoreline

and our shutters pulled tight against her

who, in the end, forgives, balance restored,

a gentle woman, kind, matronly, and patient.