my story hides

As sea anemones wave in the ocean current

so too the trees wave in the currents of the wind

their motion in perfect synchrony,

the tallest among them, even their trunks sway,

the ghostly creaking of ancient wood

a kind of music of death and dying.

last year's leaves and the trees felled by time

feed rich loam where acorn and seed will sprout

after the spring rains

and the early May sun warms the earth.

...

Have you ever wondered if trees

converse with one another?

their words spoken so slowly that the human ear

does not recognize that they have said anything at all,

or noticed how their branches move as fluidly as a dancer's arms?

might their roots dance too,

but with such glacial patience that none

but the mycelium who dance with them might notice?

have you ever embraced an oak with such tenderness

that you felt the life that coursed slow and steady within it?

...

In a tree's life she might witness many generations of men,

coming and going without rhyme or reason

our swift movements making us all but invisible

to whatever senses they use to see, smell and hear.

But surely, they take notice when we lay the axe

to the wide girth of their trunks

or they hear the shrill buzz of the chain saw

as it cruelly bites.

who are we in their world if not the enemy

of their slow, subtle and steady lives?

...

I sometimes remember impossible things

like the terrible crash of thunder in a cloudless sky

my eyes blinking in terror

at a tree so tall that it climbs into the heavens

in the midday brilliance, and I whisper,

surely this is God's sacred throne

before awe closes my throat,

light cascading down its trunk like a colossus,

its bulging roots thrusting into the earth

with inexpressible power.

...

but my story hides in that tree, root and branch,

a legacy of unremembered memories,

my parent's untold stories, and their parent's,

all tales that would tell me who I truly am,

and I wish with all my heart that I could hear

that great tree speak to me and then share

this story with my children and they would share it with theirs

and the untold stories of untold generations

would be added to the record of our lives

and to the records of all those who came before us.