Cut open to count the rings

[tectak]

A child-minding crow
calls out through morning mist
as it clings cold
on banks of quiet bracken.
He follows footsteps for scraps
kept hidden from the murder.

Narled oaks watch saplings take shape,Narled. Keith?
bent by the winds advice,
arthritic branches knuckle
with fingers of new growth
as mud caked wellingtons rinse
red in pathway puddles.

Twirling loss under a bare canopy
questions push speech on falling leaves
and listens to the moss covered bark
of a broken soldiers stride.
Why do these old trees survive
when all their pretty has gone and died?

Strangely evocative, Keith. Inventive verbs like "knuckle with..." are probably not for the purists, but hell, I know what it means. Punctuation IS a problem, if only for clarity...the lord giveth and the lord taketh away...but I am unsure if sans punctuation is a device in this one. Think on,Laddie.
Can't say I didn't like it but I may not read it again...that may be a good thing.
Best, 
tectak