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 Skeletal Pines by Raymond A. Foss 
						Weathered gray, sparse
 even the living limbs
 skeletal pines, evergreens stripped of excess
 no pretense, essentials only
 exposed at the water’s edge
 on each point, each inlet
 the bays and streams
 emptying into the lake
 
 Watching for birds perched
 high in the dead gray branches
 The gray broken only
 by the rust, the café au lait
 exposed sinew, where the trees have split
 revealing the center;
 maybe by spindly needles
 holding on against the winds
 blowing across the lake.
 
 July 27, 2008
 Squam Lake, NH, July 26, 2008
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