by Tom Fillion
It is easy to convince
A tree that it is a forest
In the springtime and summer
When the rain and snowmelt
Fill its empty branches
with fresh leaves
And birds of every feather
Find hermitage within the
bower
And yet when fall and winter
Strip away the façade
The forest stands
Alone and unconvinced
sturdy as a tree
That it ever was one
Thomas Fillion is the author of 5 novels and 2 books of poetry.
A new novel, The Year of Broken Glass, is in the works. A number of
his short stories and poems reside online. He graduated from the University of
South Florida in Tampa and is the third generation of his family to work at Mt.
Washington Cog Railroad in New Hampshire. His experience as a waterbed set-up
man inspired The Dream Mechanic, a colorful look at 1970s Me Generation. His
teaching career began at Hillsborough County Adult High School as an English
and math instructor. In 1991, Desert Storm, he was an English language trainer
for the Royal Saudi Air Force in Taif, Saudi Arabia. He has also taught
Ringling circus children and was a private tutor for Nick Carter of the
Backstreet Boys. For twenty years he taught math and coached track, tennis, and
golf at Robinson High School. He is now gainfully unemployed, i.e., retired,
and spends his time writing, riding a bicycle along Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard
and Riverwalk, picking a guitar, grilling some dinner, and traveling to New
Mexico and Vermont. @dream_mechanic, facebook.com/dreammechanic, https://thomasmfillion.substack.com/
Tom’s
latest book of poems, Everyone Gets a Trophy, is available
on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Gets-Trophy-Thomas-Fillion/dp/B0FM82RMG6/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0
