7.08.2024

The Rule Book's in the Mail

For several days

my morning commute

was shoving your favorite

tree down my throat

into these tarnished lungs

where it mixed with smoke

before that heavier merge.


I understand now

why you like it best.

Deciduous and round

its roots reach north and south

from that interstate median

for a way under the pavement.


It's not the most majestic

but rather, if a spaceman

one thousand years from tonight

were to summon the ancient archives

in search of the meaning of "tree"

that's the image that'd appear

on the screen affixed to his wrist


whereas mine, though unidentified

is leaning somewhere 

out over a river, its trunk protruding

from a split in stone left by glaciers

defying gravity and statistics

a tattered rope tied to a limb

that's held the weight of children

for generations


and most importantly

not yet found

by the one 

I still must protect.


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