The wind bending these
solemn cypress trees carries
thoughts of gentle Cyparissus,
who loved a deer so much
he wished to die himself
when his pet was shot
by careless hunter;
yet, loved as he was by Apollo,
he got transformed into that most
durable of trees, the cypress,
friend of cemeteries
and outlasting of death.

[Michael Routery is a writer and poet living in Northern California. He is the author of From the Prow of Myth, and his work can be found in a wide variety of publications, including Beatitude: 50, Datura, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina devotional anthologies, Written In Wine, Bearing Torches, Unbound, and Out of Arcadia.]