Tree

I planted a tree, and postponed my master plan:

to die. It lifted my spirits to imagine

a future shoot sprouting up from nothing, with filaments

and cells bunched to something singular and green

grasping out to a handshake sky.

I taste dirt.

Tonight the stars are at arms length

and the empty parts around them might be my skin.

Life is a screen tonight

and I am its broken projector,

every third frame skips and I move at half 

speed in a monster dream.

Everyone please put your faces back on,

I liked it better when I could fool myself

into thinking I understood you. Everyone stop fracturing

so intricately, my sonnets would work if you didn't.

I want the air to not exist so bright around you. I wish

your eyes would stop splaying inward like caves to explore.

It would be easier if you were uglier, 

to let go of this body, perhaps

fading wouldn’t be so difficult.

You smirk and say “no one said it would 

be easy, stop being melodramatic, keep on living or 

start dying.” and I say “Oh yeah. That's a good point, and

              holy s**t I love you” 

I wipe my eyes and

push another seed into the damp dirt 

while the wind quietly dies on my face 

and is born again quietly in my hair.

Reviews

[Sydney]

I just re-read it, "every third frame skips and I move at half
speed, in an abstract monster dream."

I get such a vivid image of this scene, I feel like I am in dreaming in an empty antique cinema room with a vintage horror film showing, displaying almost like a flipbook. So there's what I got out from it round II lol, I really like those lines. Good job on this one, it's thoroughly fantastic

[Sydney]

I read this 3 times, each time learning something new. I felt a deep sadness when I read it, a longing that will never be fulfilled, a certain je ne sais quoi emotion. I felt this one deeply

[Anthony J]

Thank you for reading/reviewing! I agree that it's pretty sad, but I hope there were moments of beauty in the sadness

[Sydney]

Yes there was, and that's my favorite kind of beauty

[Nadia B.]

Excellent piece, the artistry with which you combine concepts of green shoots, the sky, life, death, the air, beauty, ugliness, distance, and attachment...it is wonderfully put. You weave the words intertwined and fix them together so beautifully as if they had never been apart. I also love the lines you use "grasping out to a handshake sky," "splaying inward like caves to explore," "while the wind quietly dies on my face and is born again quietly in my hair." Really good use of repetition in the last line of your last stanza as well, "quietly." As that is how one hopes to go when they finally pass away. You have captured a moment between life and death that really is so touching and moving. Thank you for sharing this excellent piece, really enjoy the way you write and the heartfelt stories you tell!

[Anthony J]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate all of your reviews because you seem to really put a lot of thought into the works you read. It feels good to know that someone is taking the time to dissect what I write. Thanks again!

[B]

That has a very serene feel to it
Your words are giving someone away

but in a very elegant fashion
With such sensitivity
How graceful ......