milwaukee parks

She is a tree branch in the night

hanging with the stars

afraid to become fluorescent.

She cowers

against her trunk

but she is no coward;

every moment

her reach extends

and what she finds, past the centimeter of despair

is simply

beauty.

She grows on, steady.

Beauty, more.

And now she is glowing,

black against blue,
light had changed color.

And she is.