on the bus ride to cambridge, the tour guide tries to tell us about peasant rebellions, chelsea buns, plague pits: the sky grew dusty with coughed prayers… some of the younger couples pay attention: young professionals from beijing, i think, they collect these kinds of stories like toy trains and action […]
Tree challenge
Barkskin
The wood around the village edge greys in the distance like eyes do in time. The tree bark creases like crows’ feet arounds knots and branched shoulders. Craning my neck to write, the forest comes out from behind beeswax polish and I chase my classmates across the pine carpet. Looking past my pencils and papers, […]
Felling
Something happened and the evening turned into a bruise. The next day the bruise grew a tree. He walked around it all morning. Whispering, then yelling. Through the garden window I saw his lips, blue, and the mist leaving them to break upon the bark. He was back inside when I came home from work. […]
Looking at Trees
Looking at trees on the way home this evening, bent in the wind, leaning amicably like drinkers at a bar, I thought: I will stop resisting. I will lean with my friends, and let the wind agitate my hair.
I am the Tree
I drink Earth’s blood, Eat the light, Host the snow, Feel winds flow, Fledglings’ flight. I’ve heard the night owl’s hoots, Mushrooms balance on my roots Where flowers used to grow, They don’t know how far they go I’ve seen them all Between my leaves, In Autumn fall, In my bark sleeves. Some say I […]
parallel of a dead oak
a tree dissevered dissevered a tree roots worms clear in green water a deified root deified worms a tree dissevered translucent in green water a tree painted the reflection of hollow the landscape of woods holds its own […]
The White Trees
In time, leaves fall to become wings. Owls leave hunting for winter. Tree branches cocked in mid-air like flags; the December snow envelopes them like air — like breath — both visible and invisible. Children, in the now lost leafshade build a snowman, with twigs for hands, borrowed from a white tree. Someone in the […]
Dermatology for Trees
I recommend a dab of argan oil, bird-screech, honey water to soothe the complexion. Apply twice daily, no less. No song as tremulous as self-coronation. As body anointing every drip & seed. When you exfoliate, your roots may take flight, sing more sap than cratered underbelly. What I mean is this: the moss shall slick […]