RED MAPLES
By g.l.bass (the ghostbear still lives)
September 2001

The world's amidst change,
Maples once summer green
Now deep in red
Vow in all their subtle ways,
Life for us has changed.

The world of summer
Turns its heart inward
Toward colder winds
And autumn's darker ways.
We awake from
Nights filled by ghost dreams,
Expecting life to be the same,
But frost's found its way
Out from times filled
With winter.
Life, for us,
Will never be the same.
Maples have all turned red.
The world's amidst change.

Red Maples turn
Toward Fall days.
Their heavy hearts yearn
For past days.
Their arms can no longer bear
Autumn’s windy ways,
Their souls bear
To times of change,
They let lose all they were,
And the sky fills with swirling
Leaves that blow down streets,
Gather in gutters,
Pile upon lawns
And now,
In these times,
Are marked at every corner
By Flags unfurled,
Proud Stars and Stripes,
In windows, on walls,
Down highways,
Atop buildings,
Everywhere,
Flown against winds of change,
Never to be flown again the same.

All we once knew,
All we once were sure of,
Can never again be the same.
Each flag has a story,
Each flag has a name,
Each flag a heart's aftermath
To that autumn day,
History will say defined
Yesterday from today,
And number in losses.
But we will measure
By the pictures,
Loved ones
On our walls, tables, mantles,
Images in our hearts,
We can never again look at,
Or remember,
And be the same.

Maples adorn themselves
In dark red
Of times changed.
The sun leans toward winter.
We all,
In silent, secret ways,
Prepare our hearts
Against coming, colder days.
We prepare our hearts
Against storms of war,
Sure to test, divide and tear
Apart all we once knew
As true.
Across the skies of the world
Planes thunder
In voices of war.
Ships storm across the sea,
Set sail upon voyages of battle.
Soldiers, mission ready,
Bear arms of war,
They prepare to test
Their resolve against
Threats of terror
And storms of war
Against our sacred land.


All of us,
Crews in planes across the sky,
Sailors aboard ships at sea,
Soldiers in distant hostile lands,
Each and everyone of us,
As we turn our hearts east
To face the rising sun,
Understand, never again
Will autumn mornings
Be the same.
Upon our hearts we wear
The stories of hero's,
The names of love ones lost,
And the history of the way


Life used to be,
Before the day when
Maples turned red
Amidst an instant
When the nation’s
Heart bled,
And all of life
For all of us,
Changed