methuselah’s beard

Written By Vita Poetica

by Dan MacIsaac

Usnea longissima

whiskery hermit 
quails & shivers

grizzled miser 
sips cold mist

old gaffer tests 
an ill wind

gaunt patriarch gags 
on unclean air

pale shroud sags 
over a dark bough

tattered hairshirt hangs  
on scorched bone

barbed light cracks 
across that scarred back

Note: Also known as Old Man’s Beard, this pendant lichen colonizes old growth coastal forests. It is endangered due to habitat loss and its high sensitivity to air pollution.

 
 

Dan MacIsaac writes from Vancouver Island. His poetry has been published in magazines such as Stand, Canary, and The New Quarterly. Brick Books published his collection, Cries from the Ark.

Vita Poetica https://www.vitapoetica.org
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