Reverence

by Elizabeth Siegfried

Stands of hemlock and 
Silvery sentinels
Quietly 
Safeguard the shore
A place that once 
Stood sheltered by its location

A sacred microcosm
In the wilderness 
Now Infiltrated by progress
Vulnerable to the world outside
Fragile in its history
No longer secured by family.

Yet as I move through time
There
It is timeless
Amid its cabins
Along its paths
Ancestral spirits wander
A place alive with memories
And relics of old.

But with no heirs to bestow
What destiny for a place
So revered?