Bonsai Dreams

Stunted

Shallowly rooted

Trimmed and shaped by

Another’s hand

☀️🪴⋆˚࿔

Years of training-box-bound restriction

Left me a meager, spindly trunk and branches

Wire wrapped to sculpt and

Maintain my forced configuration

Planted atop a slab of rock

Left naked in the wind

☀️🪴⋆˚࿔

Careless motion sent me toppling

Dislodged my roots, sought soil and security

Embedded in the real world

Explosive growth, abundance behold

Leaves shooting towards the sun

The rapid expansion of freedom

Strengthening arms broken free of

Weak wiry bonds

Thrown to the heavens

In gratitude and verdant praise

K.B. Silver

I have always loved Bonsai trees. The amazing ways nature is adaptable and mutable. When grown in a small, shallow box, a tree shrinks and grows, but only large enough to fit in the container. If transplanted into free soil, it will grow rapidly. Though it may never reach the heights a seed that fell in open soil would have, it will grow as large as it needs.

I think the comparison to people is obvious. People may be able to survive, even appear to thrive, in harsh, limiting circumstances, but they can and will grow if given the freedom to do so. No one is a closed book as long as they are living.