obtuse

obtuse \uhb-TOOS\ (adjective):

1. not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect.

2. not sharp, acute, or pointed; blunt in form.

3. (of a leaf, petal, etc.) rounded at the extremity.

Being only a few, tall trees in the yard

There wasn't much for us to hide under.

Only one tall evergreen, one bristly mother

With her skirt that dragged the ground.

Being too much a cold, unwelcoming thing,

We never ventured into her folds

More than once before learning our lesson -

The kind only nature can teach so well.

No, we mostly stayed in the shadows

Of the fencerow, tree-lined, swampy, lush,

Where birds fluttered inside the nestles

Of briar bushes, and hairy bogs protruded

Like stepping stools. They led  to small clearings, 

Areas of sudden openness, as if the woods

Had created a room for us to exist in alone,

Where we could not hear our mothers.

We were never supervised, you and I.

Hard to believe now, a girl and a boy, so left

To their own devices. How like animals,

We were, digging in the mud. What little

Explorers, building forts out of pillows

And blankets. Places we could hide a whole

Afternoon. How curious we were then. How

Much nature had given us to discover.