Creative Destruction - March 19 2025

 

Creative Destruction*

March 19 2025

* a term coined by the economist Joseph Schumpeter to describe the dynamism and innovation of capitalism, although the concept was first proposed by Karl Marx in his earlier critique of capitalism’s destructive power.

Some trees fell.

Ones that looked healthy enough

to the unpracticed eye,

but now I can tell

how rot was working its way

from the heartwood out.

So the wind pushed them over

the way an easy nudge

topples a drunk,

a teetering tower of children’s blocks

almost falls on its own.

The wind carves openings.

The forest culls itself.

In a bad winter

branches break

overloaded with snow.

Which means saplings have more sun

in the cool shade below.

While snags

and dead trees that still stand

make good habitat,

the litter on the forest floor

rejuvenates the soil.

In the next big storm, I listen carefully

for falling trees;

the loud crack

crashing of branches

and dull thump as they land,

the flat sound

of solid earth.

But don’t hear a thing.

The wind sweeps clean,

scouring the forest floor

of dead leaves and debris.