Inconspicuous Hunger

We long to believe something else is responsible
All night we hear it
The jittery squirrel gamboling over boughs
A bevy of brown twitchy sparrows
Rocked by the northerly wind
The buds failed to open
Nourishment for bark beetles
While the trees’ majestic crowns continue to fray
Such as they will every year
An inconspicuous hunger
Spreading in young saplings
Their bleeding is artlessly pure
Like these salty blood stakes in our palms
The message for now
Contains the sterile tang of tinsel in our mouths