To Sniff Tree Bark

Roots to ankles, ankles to roots

Tie soft yellow ribbon round my belly

Round your tree trunk umbilical

As sap snails down toward the waiting

Toward hungry bluebird mouths wide open

I am hungry bluebird nourished by ethereal eternal patience

Wrapped arms round branches while leaves entangle round limbs

Inhale earthy scent of what has always been and always will be

Feeling stems sprout between toes and fingers

As flowers push through internal cracks like the breeze through tall grass

Life blooms regardless of trauma

Seedlings sprout regardless of contamination

We too, grow regardless, in due to heavy rains and blue skies

Bound together by the foundational elements of our existence

By the need for sun and oxygen, water and hope

For if I fall in a forest and no one is around to hear, tree roots still catch me, brambles and rambles and all

Branches still sway in unison to the storm in my mind

Leaves still fall to wipe salt trail tears

You cannot sever a connection molecular deep

Not when yellow ribbons knot us together, like twirling twigs pinky-promising companionship

While bluebirds collect nesting from my hair and rest in your arms

Where sap leaks out of pores as naturally as it weaves downward through tree bark wrinkles

Our anatomy is a mirror

Ankles to roots, roots to ankles