Tree

Today, I am a tree.

My long, gangly limbs arc upwards and embrace the heavens

my roots spiral down into the dark, damp, dirt

a ganglia of a million beautifully tangled connections.

I am here because you breathed life into me. We are one.

Yesterday, I was a mighty Peregrine gliding on tufts of swirling air and wind

I targeted my meal below in the grassy marshes.

Now I am that struggling pregnant woman on the train, face lit with discomfort

as I am forced to stand "on my own two feet" even after a too

long 16 hour shift at Sal's Cafe. No one will handout his seat

and I cannot afford another mouth to feed.

I have been the pith on the inside of the lemon

and the filament in the bulb in your Grandma Edna's attic.

I have seen worlds conquered and galaxies born.

As a snowflake, I once melted into my place exactly as fate requested.

As a rock, I held my ground for a thousand years till the rain and

sun and wind relieved me of my guard.

You know of which I speak - for we are both forged from the

particles of stars. In this blessed here - there is no other,

the whole universe has conspired to create this very moment.

I am - because you are, as if there's any difference.

This is the ground in which all arises.

Where did I learn that the boundary of "me" ceased

at my skin, or my gender, or my race, country, species or even my thoughts.

Perhaps I did so because it seemed easier to indulge the lie then to steadily face

the immense pain and sorrow of my helplessness when confronted by the horrors of

of a world swalllowed by its own starvation, avarice, war, murder, and rape.

But really there is only an ounce of difference between true helplessness and surrender

which is where the freedom lies.

And so, tomorrow I am the leaf -- willingly seduced at twilight by

the gentle wind into one final dance that lays me upon the altar of myself.

Twirl me where you will. I am given over in love and it rends my heart into an

infinity of nothingness that will once again nourish this

tree of life.