Tree

Photo by Faye Cornish on Unsplash

Y’all. There was this tree at my childhood next-door neighbor’s house. And I loved that tree. I keep returning to it in dreams and daydreams and moments when my heart feels tender and not quite up to becoming a crone. In this section of the spiral through my life, I am closer than ever to the child who was. So she wrote this one.

Tree has a seat that is just the right size

for a small girl to sit and lean in with her left shoulder.

Tree doesn't care if your shirt and shorts don't match each other

or how short your hair is

or what makes you giggle.

Tree giggles all the time.

Tree smells like good dreams you forget as soon as you wake up.

Tree never moves, never stiffens or pulls away --

no matter how much you cry or

what you whisper into the secret whorls of bark.

Tree keeps secrets and know who you are --

even if no one else does.