The Awesome Alder

by Lee Basnar

Man is cursed with pestilence,
Torment and affliction.
He suffers each with dignity
And casual malediction.

But there’s a foe he’ll conquer not,
No matter how he tries,
For there’s a bush that’s devil-spawned—Impostor in disguise.

Alder is this monster’s name;
ALNUS is its genus.
A clump of bushes leaved on top,
With sides sometimes scalenus.

This pretty bush with many limbs
You never would suspect,
Unless through wilderness
That’s alder-strewn you’ve trekked.

It loves to beckon, draw you in,
With pathways so misleading.
The thoroughfare you think you’ve found
Soon leaves you scratched and bleeding.

You turn around, retrace your steps,
At least that’s your intent.
That sneaky bush has slammed the door;
You can’t tell where you went.

The limbs meander, twist, and turn.
The trunks divaricate.
The trembling leaves now block your view.
You cease to navigate.

Your brow is wet; you’ve skinned your shins,
You can’t tell where to go.
Each move’s an option—bend or stretch,
Step high, or scramble low.

And if you chance to crash on through
To patch of tundra bare,
Take heed and look across the glade—
More alders beckon there.

A starving moose won’t eat this shrub,
And rabbits pass it by.
Since man won’t use its wood for heat,
It’s left to multiply.

Old Satan placed this devil-bush
On earth to pester folk.
No other explanation
Fits nature’s fiendish joke.

Avoid the alder, pass it by,
Ignore its invitation.
It’s really not a bush at all—
It’s devil’s vegetation.