Trees....I go to you

Trees...

I go to you

as to no others

my shame exposed

my finiteness revealed

I bow before

your kind

who have known

the angst

of ages

been toppled

in the name

of progress

uprooted

for beauty's sake

you who are

beauty incarnate

who welcome

my imperfection

my crude exterior

that you pierce

continually

to make me

yours

　

always

you speak without words

not like we

with our sounds

and inadequate

sentiment

you speak

with leaves

with sighs

and stirrings

with bits of light

that come together

into thought

idea

warning

　

telling stories

sharing secrets

revealing truths

known only to you

standing

as you have

these ages

patient

resigned

the wind

the sun

the rain

and birds

your only friends

https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Lovejoy/e/B00JJ259DS

Trees...unless we were there...

Trees...

　

...unless we were there when you first took hold

on some dark night not far beneath the soil's surface

when whatever seed produced you split open

revealing all its truths the promise of root and crown

introduced you to the world we can't know

how long you lived how long you held birds

in your arms made space for tree houses

or sheltered lovers from spring rains

thrilled us with myriad greens in summer

and riots of red orange and gold in autumn

　

we can't know this fact irrelevant

as it is in most cases for why should we care

how old you are or how long it took you to get there

where you stood with others who made it

the struggle the merciless winds you bore the ice

that threatened to do you in several times

it only makes it all the harder to bear when they

finally do away with you leaving

just a stump all that's left of what you were

　

I remember a pine tree whose layers

from its heartwood out

numbered close to a hundred and how

I stood there bent over it knowing how long

it had taken it to get there and how quick its demise

painless unless you allow how fickle Time is

how quick to unravel all that she has pushed along

to the here and the now toward some culmination

that means nothing

I did not thrill to that

　

but then when you are gone

we know don't we

we count rings run our fingers lovingly and respectfully

across your damp remains your uncharacteristic flatness

where once stood lushness and character

and say things like "ah" and "oh"

and marvel that we can do it

forgetting all that you once did for us

all that you once were

　

even in death you do this much for us

https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Lovejoy/e/B00JJ259DS

Trees....even when I am not with you...

Trees

　

...even when I am not with you

I am with you

if only through my window

as you shed your fall attire and wait to don

your winter finery

　

a few of you left recently

decimated by the tree service

saws

　

I sat by watching as they

toppled you sent you crashing to the ground

where you sent shudders through me for

the last time and then

　

someone came to erase what was left

grind away at your soul

at the records of your years

your dust fell

mingled with the soil

and then I went out

to claim you

to scatter as much as I could of you

among my flowers

where you will never be forgotten

at least not by them

　

and now it's as if nothing was

ever there at all

as if you'd never stood there

straining beneath the taller trees that had

the advantage all along but you never gave up

reaching for the sun

ever

　

nor will I

　

ever

https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Lovejoy/e/B00JJ259DS