by Elizabeth McGinn on February 25, 2021

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Poetry

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by Sarah McLaughlin

The red soil gives them their color

And in return, they give their needles

Painting the ground a ruddy orange.

A nesting place for wrens and chickadees

And dragonflies they provide, and the air

Breathed by coyotes, does, and dingoes.

Beware the yellow jasmine that twists its way

Up unsuspecting trunks

To cinch them like a snake

Suffocates its prey.