A Tree Speaks to the Rain

Lay me bare. Strip me of my leaves, green innocence
As I struggle to grow, to breathe in this pain,
Eat at my heart! -my disease. My pestilence.

Wet hard bones, brown and cold- do I not tempt you again?
Naked, glistening, arms outstretched to an unseeing sky.
You whore. Cleanse me, then! -your insanity keeps me sane

Through your strange sadistic pleasures. I do not cry
Beat me livid, till I'm numb, whiplashes on my face
My veins turn black but I do not bleed. Frozen like my soul, my

Yellow blood has hardened- and my skin cracks in place,
Peels in stiff brown pieces, but I do not bleed. Your hate in slivers
Slice through me, cutting me clean. I sway, breathless, in a daze

Of searing pain. And you flow through me in rivers,
In torrents, floods, glorious inundation of self-hate, quivering
In my wearied pores, creeping into my roots- O Life-giver!


In the amber light after your storm I stand shivering
Under a gray sky. Swollen with your soul.



But I grow from you.
I grow from you.




and, beaten,
broken,
ravished by your hate,
I break into flower
with flourish.


(2011)