#1313 - a tree as old as me

 

1313

6.viii.23

4.219

a tree as old as me

 

and might be met at any age

 

there has always been one

and there will always be

 

I have stored up in

like leaf for roof

everyone’s home

 

veils of smoke fall through the proper rain

my house is timber too

 

and now, advancing

these few whom I preserve

with watching

with do no harm

by territory

with that terrible word ‘mine’

and knowing the fearful summer we’ve made

 

I wish for them to survive me

that others may walk

in their shade