"The Tree is Farther to the Man" by Bill Yarrow

The Tree is Farther to the Man

Man:

What a tree you are! Look at your girth, your spread, your leaves.
Look at your talented branches, your perfect bark. Even your roots
are not hidden from our view. Like May dolphins in the Indian Ocean,
they peek playfully from the ground, signs of stolid accomplishment.
O what a marvelous tree you are. Amazing tree! Outstanding tree!

Tree:

I don't think I can stand up straight one second more. My roots are
exhausted. My bark feels dead. My branches have advanced in so
many ill-considered directions, I am lost in the map of their ancestry.
I am constricted by rings. The weight of self crushes me. Woodpeckers,
worms, spider mites, and scullery bugs crave my pulp. I long to fall.

Lightning:

I will strike the tree and smash it. It will splinter under my sharp fist.
It will topple. It shall not stand. All its branches will lie in horrifying squalor.

History:

I have photographed the tree in its infancy, maturity, old age, and decline.
Now, I will photograph the tree in its demise, upended in swart disarray.

Robert Salley, Jul 13, 2011

I love this, Bill. Great job!

Bill Yarrow, Jul 13, 2011

Thanks, Robert. Something a little bit different!

MaryAnne Kolton, Jul 13, 2011

Bill, I'm sure you meant "farther" rather than "father" and I'm still trying to figure it out. Very different and intriguing. . .
fave

Bill Yarrow, Jul 13, 2011

"The Tree is Farther to the Man."

Just another of my literary jokes. Wordsworth: "the child is father of the man."

Also title of Blood, Sweat, and tears album:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Is_Father_to_the_Man

Thanks, MaryAnne!

Jack Swenson, Jul 13, 2011

And so it goes. Maybe if the tree saw a shrink that would help. Seems he/she is lacking in self esteem. *

Emily Bertholf, Jul 13, 2011

Bill, love the personification and perspective of this poem. It feels almost mythological, and definitely metaphorical. Fave.

James Lloyd Davis, Jul 14, 2011

"...swart disarray." SWART!!!!!
Damned Frisian thing to say, that.

fav

Linda Simoni-Wastila, Jul 14, 2011

"...scullery bugs crave my pulp." And "swart". You just transported me to some other era. Love this. Peace *

Sam Rasnake, Jul 14, 2011

Great form and phrasing, Bill. Good connections at work here. Really like the tree section.

Joani Reese, Jul 15, 2011

The copy line, "I am constricted by rings" put me in mind of Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It. The final line is "I am haunted by waters." I like this, Bill.