the trees you see in your neighborhood,
every time you pull in after school,
those are normal and familiar and standard
they’re everywhere
middle-class neighborhoods
filled with mundane employees
enslaved to a life they chose when money was the biggest concern
and ever-increasingly bored children
plague the asphalt streets
these trees are pulled from their roots and placed in evenly spaced blocks
equidistant
too far apart to share branches
too alone to grow properly
these trees and these adults are so similar
and then there are the trees
that you visited in the fifth grade
the redwood trees
looming giants that shook hands with the moon every night
they stand in forests, their roots tripping up the unsuspecting
wise, old, enchanted
and you think that these trees and your grandmother are quite similar
because both your grandmother and these redwoods
are spectacular,
magnificent
and then there are the pines
that you see, tall and skinny,
clustered together, sopping,
and their branches look blurry ,
2 miles away, through
your rain splattered window
and they look so sad, clustered together and breathing the same air
as you grew up
your heart sunk its roots into
the soil that was your birth town
and when you moved
your heart had to grow a different set of roots
into the boy that first called you beautiful
and then you had to rip those roots out
when he ignored you
and now you have to grow your roots into the sadness
that crept into your branches,
spinning a glossy web of black silk
with no spider in sight
and your roots are so mangled and tangled
that you can’t trace back
to where they first start
because your heart is covered in dew
and your skin is like bark
and your eyes are green like the leaves
and it is too late to stop yourself
before you realize that you’ve become one of the pines
clustered together with all the sad teens
wimpy and weak, bending in the breeze
but child! do not worry
this is where you change your fate
if you shut your eyes tight enough ,
you will see inside the beating little heart ,
encased in teardrops and silk
you have to claw away the obsidian webs
you have to wipe away the watery beads
you have to snap away the thorny twigs
you must dip your heart into liquid gold
and when you open your eyes you will shine light
your irises will be green and gold
with life and power
and your roots will be ripped once more from the ground
but you are a redwood !
a sequoia !
you are tall and your fingertips are brushing the sky
you kiss the moon’s cheek every night
and your grandmother is forever sleeping
on the forest floor
but you are spectacular,
magnificent