The Night I Found My Tree by Shelly Lyons, North Carolina
I flee my house so I can breathe in the night and listen to the leaves rattle.
Walking thru the whispering streets I find myself atop a hill
overlooking the lights of the city.
I stand there, a solitary pillar, gazing out and letting my mind go numb.
Intruding lights threaten me as I stand too close to the road,
and it’s then that the tree calls to me.
“come here, come close, be one with me and no one will see you”
So I lean against its trunk and feel its solid strength behind me.
I look up thru its branches to the thin clouds and bright stars
and it’s then that the branch over my head asks me to climb,
“come here, come up, sit with me, and see the city from above”
So I firmly grab one of its limbs and kick my leg up and over
I pull up easily into this new friend and adjust to the world from a new height.
Then the dark dry leaves still clinging on whistle and tap saying to me,
“come here, come closer, hug me and feel my mighty strength”
So I wrap my arms around it tightly, locking my hands to complete the link.
Its tall maple trunk is warm and smooth, firm and solid inside my desperate clutches.
Then from deep inside its very heart I sense its spirit drawing me,
“stay here, stay close, the two of us are one now”
So I spill my tears upon its skin because never once does it say, “enough!”
Now we are forever bonded by my christening of these tears, “I whisper softly to my tree.
And it pulls the listening globes I offer down into its pores.
When the time has come for me to leave, I climb slowly down.
Now my limbs are numb and cold, so much like my tree.
I step softly over its grassy floor,
then from down below I hear its roots call up to me,
“come here, come back, now that you’ve found me, always remember”
I whisper, “it’s time to go, this night has gone on too long,
but soon I will return again and climb into your arms,
till then I will keep you in my heart – our spirits forever fused,
and neither will ever forget this night or the magic that ensued.”