What if you were the very last tree?
The only one left to keep our secrets, hear our laments or grieve our sorrows?
Your own?
Would we stop the madness? See wonder through new eyes? Hold sacred
vigils?
Could a child reach out and touch? Feel the rivulet roughness of your bark?
Would a sparrow find rest, permission to nest? Or would barbed wire shroud
your Elegance, armed guards and “Keep Out” signs?
Just in case, I need to confide.
I rely on you to stand holy ground
Fidelity not even my dog would understand.
Maple-Ash-Oak-Aspen! Earth in fluidity!
You live to protect her, would die to protect her
Yet you’d take not one life to avenger her demise.
Anthem of a true patriot!
And oh, that I could sway in the breeze regardless of tempo!
Reverberate rhythm regardless of rhyme?
Surrender to splendor? Relinquish my need? Allow revelation?
I try to speak but the right words don’t come.
You’ve never needed to be right. Your knotted scars and tangled trust
Pure Bodhi Speak!
Arms always reaching, limbs touching limbs in solidarity
Branches without borders
And somewhere deep in the womb of our own awakening,
Arrogance dissolves in your rich moist darkness. Rooted dreams spiral their
longing, Tangled and hugged and calmed in your fathomless underground
beyond words.
Jody Walker