Douglas Nichols

Douglas Nichols Poems

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A Flare For Nature

When nature awakens from it's slumber
And tender buds Spring from a tree,
Leaves form to quench its deep hunger pangs,
Each becoming a little energy factory.

Various pigments in the leaves start forming,
Some more prominent and others not well seen,
Yellow from xanthophylls, Orange from Carotenoids,
And chlorophyll forming that which is green.

Chlorophyll is a specialized molecule.
It utilizes carbon dioxide and water both.
Then through a process called photosynthesis,
It converts them to oxygen and glucose.

This process continues
From morning until night,
And continues through the season
When there is sufficient daylight.

The chlorophyll starts to diminish
When the day length losses it's prime.
Colors in the leaves, masked before by the green,
Become prominent, and then begin to shine.

Some trees will vary
In the color they show,
Some show a mixture,
and some strictly orange or yellow.

The nights, they get cooler,
Fluid movement slows from the leaf,
Sugars left in the process,
Transform into another motif.

Red color the result,
Caused by an anthocyanin,
Which can transform to the color purple
When mixed with a phenolic pigment called tannin.

The Fall endures for a time,
In it's colors array,
Till another change happens
Causing the leaves not to stay,

For something then develops
Between the leaf stem and branch,
An abscision layer it is called
Eventually causing the leaves to detach.

The trees now left barren,
To endure the rest of the year,
And continues through just chillin
Till Spring buds begin to appear.

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