The Trees Acknowledge You

All night we digest & submerge, dip wind
& moon to illuminate each other’s branches.

Hiving in our stillness. This is the give & take.

We squirm under our leaf blanket. Claws scar
our ridges – we twitch as we harbor hawks

& nestle squirrels. Can you hear us
panting the sky? All day long, we talk beetles

& honeysuckle. And we listen. The rumors,
your troubled heart. Confess it.

Our wounded limbs ache, joints tired
of all this poison. We expect frost.

Don’t you come from seed?
That sticky darkness. Do you ever think of

what clings to grow & what becomes lost?
In the company of warblers, snakes, weasels,

we witness their loss, mourn. Our roots beneath
the soil now their anchor. Come to comfort

in our shade. If we could, we’d gift you
a crown of thistle, watch you lose skin

to bark, blood to sapwood. Will your hands
vine? This love we have for you – you hear

our hearts snap when our branches break.
Just as whole as you are.

Rebecca Connors’ poems can be found in DIALOGIST, Menacing Hedge, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Orison Anthology and her first chapbook will be released this fall. After living in multiple cities, she is happily settled with her family in Boston, where she writes poetry and rallies for public education. Follow her on Twitter @aprilist or visit her site at aprilist.com.