Nature

Don't meet nature at the wrong time,

Or in the wrong place.

It will freeze your bones,

Or boil your blood.

Its vastness overwhelms,

Or closes you in.

Ravines offer sharp heights

To entice or intimidate.

Malevolent mountains hover above

And snigger down at feeble selves.

Huge woods choke and smother -

Take your breath away.

Their dark, dank insides

Threaten with perfect silence.

Moors suck you into their bogs.

Blast away with wind and rain.

Heather snares your poncey boots;

Dragging you back – again and again.

Tall ferns loose you -

Send you to the beginning - or the end.

High above, hawks hungrily patrol -

Their eyes on the meat below.

Insects nibble through skin

Into raw flesh.

Ticks bite, suck,

And spit bacteria into the blood.

Flies cloud the vision

And harass open mouths.

This is what you get -

Nature's many faces.

Nature kind. Nature mean.

And nature indifferent.

Nature can pose for a picture,

Or turn aloofly away.

Nature won't play your game -

Unless it wants to.