Day 261: Split Tree
∴
as i traveled on my course
and had many miles made,
i came upon an oddity
that in my mem’ry stayed.
i saw a tree that solemn stood
apart from dense and thicker wood,
in plaine and open field
where nothing was concealed,
that by lightning or by gale
with force, had been impaled,
and had spilt
like the reaping of a seam.
with equal parts,
torn clean apart,
but only half did lean.
half stretched toward the heavens
in endless, blooming reach,
the other half laid ‘long the earth,
it’s nature broke and breached.
but there i lingered long
and saw notes within the split
that made an augur’s song
though few could read
what had been writ
when i sang it
my melody rang
with resonance on the bark
and together, we intoned:
·
my root,
my root is living,
and even through my splintered limbs
my leaf
and seed are giving
and water, through me, swims
and look
beneath the grasses
where i lay upon the earth,
see suckling, happy saplings
that under me are birthed.
we grow,
we grow,
back up again,
we resolutely heaven send.
look not on gnarled, twisted arms
in every crinkled form,
though stripped are we of all our charms,
we climb, despite the storm.
∴
