Dancing Troll Tree

by Kate Niebauer
(San Francisco, CA, USA)

This is the Dancing Troll Tree!

My husband and I had a sacred journey through the Trinity Alps in Northern California in the Klamath Mountain Range.

We spent a whole day walking around looking at all of the beautiful trees. Pretending we were walking through a museum, occasionally pausing to take an hors d'oeurves or refresh our glass of wine, we wandered from tree to tree, admiring each one's graceful expression. Some were dying, the silvery bark alive and beautiful, as if it were saying, "death is a glorious event, you silly human." Others were soft greens and browns with feathery leaves that laughed and leaped as we admired them.

Eventually, we came to the dancing troll tree. It was so jolly, despite its rising only two feet above the ground, it captured the attention of even the most austere granite faces who gazed at the small troll with respect.

I have attached a picture of this delightful tree. Though some may say he is not a tree, rather a trunk, we differ in that view, he is, indeed, a tree.