If a Tree Falls

Anthropocentric (adjective)–regarding humans as the most important entity in the universe.

Trunk hollowed, covered in fungi and moss
lies along the forest floor, home to mice 
and wayward raccoons. By all appearances,
an oak. I want to say, it hugs
the ground, but that’s not what’s going
on. Nor is it true that the oak’s
letting go of its stately position made 
not so much as a whisper in the woods
if no human was there to hear.
 
Burled skin, raspy leaves, music flowing 
from root to crown. When it came down, 
air vibrated in concentric waves, like those 
on water when a fish takes notion to fly,
then falls. Young dogwoods may have bowed 
to the sound and crows cawed dread warnings,
like today’s dark heralds above, unheeded by me, 
someone who tends to make the world 
revolve around myself.