a soft tree dips in the breezes
easing in the water its scaly leaves
so sodden in demons that echo and trickle
now wetter in this melting season
it hushes along the skeletal reasons
of that bony tree
yielding and gentle
slow and free
to loosen up its dark root-feet
and crawl toward that warming sea
voices whisper they can foresee
“do not go, you cannot swim- you are a tree”
but ravens hatch no sympathy
nor flies, or beaver's gnashing teeth
nor moonlight on the ground beneath
and easing in the water its saturated trunk:
it knew it could not swim, and sunk.
“Willow” was printed in Harvest Time, No. 5 of Inwood Indiana. Pick up the paperback from Prolific Press; the stories and poems published online are free to read here.
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