belonging

She said I miss you. He said be quiet.

So she was.

And then

They didn’t mean to draw lines.

He tiptoed on it like a draw bridge

despite her

exhausted swear,

This was a solid structure.

It was the line she twisted around her waist,

and it’s tight pull was a comfort

learned.

Beauty in it’s immobile strength.

She was nothing more than a root.

And he walked precariously on her.

His leafy tendencies,

to fall and sway, to quiver and stay calm would explain

his turning green and orange and brown again and again.

As she lay stuck in the ground,

surrounded in meaningful dirt,

her extended branches feel his potential.

Spring will come but he will find

Some form of removal,

an excuse on justified repeat.

“But this is a tree!” she would scream,

She craved a line they could climb; she was

heaving them up and wrapping his palms around bare winter branches.

Tie a line to her and they may swing into a river come summer.

She grabs her waist, retracing a bone, her bark.

When the wind picks up, her rooted body

will remain.

But she knew seasons;

When the wind begins

his leaves will drop.

She owns nothing but what grows,

and as he falls to grass

she realizes the impermanence of

natural belonging.