Tree of Life

   
Spring storms, flash bulbs  
of paparazzi lightening  
illuminate silver linings  
of silhouettes clinging    
to their branched life.  
   
Thunder rolls in, crashing  
against silence, vibrating    
limbs with applause; spindly  
fingers littering debris and  
blossoms across the grass.  
   
A dogwood’s leaves bend  
in prayer, baptizing meaning    
from their dripping tongues;    
drops unknot, disperse as ants    
into their burrowed nests.  
   
Clouds dissipate, leave  
residual aftermath wilting  
under an emerging heat.  
Gardens double in growth;    
Flowers thrust their chest.  
   
The same power that splits  
the trunk sustains the root,  
that conduit of continued    
growth, rebirth refusing to    
relinquish survival to death.    
~