This Moment

There's a moment in spring when the forest still looks wizened and blasted by winter. Desolate of cover or food. But the trees put out small, tender flowers and leaves at the very ends of their branches. They look decorated like candelabras in an empty house. They are exposed in an environment that still offers harshness, that isn't pretty and hasn't been for a while. They do it anyway, because it's time and what they do.