Sadness
has crept into our bones
It has leaked out into the streets
And has paved the paths we take home
There is no time
nor place
for the bells of joy
that laughter gifts
Nor for the noise
of unimportant phone calls
or birthdays
or papers
piled high on the desk
at a red traffic light
Sunshine,
Today
even you
are out of place
But the trees
They hold the stories
Beneath their skin
Among their boughs
Resting on the surface of their leaves
As they bend and sway
And fail
At breaking
Cracked pavement
And misplaced futures
Stacked in buildings
7 stories high
Their stories untold and misshapen
Lie nameless on the ground
The silence
fills the absence where they once stood
The sirens
paint fires in the sky
And draw crumbled forms
on the faces of the people we once knew
We built this world
And sat up on it
Like fat kings and jokers
Worried about the stain on our robes
And the shit on our shoes
And then
It shook
Like a reggaeton ass
All jumbled
And messy
And totally unconcerned
With shit you gotta do
Or the poo on your shoe
And the dream of control
disappears with the dust
But the trees
Gripped their toes
And sunk deep still
Reaching for the answers
From the moon and the sky
The Aztecs are knocking
Do you hear?
On the concreted gates
We’ve used to protect
Our hearts, our hands, our feet
We drained a lake
And mother earth
She likes to shake
And those concreted chains
came crumbling down
But the trees remain
And only they can teach us
How to grip our toes into the muddy earth
And sink deeper still
To discover the sacred secrets
Carved in volcanic stone
If we listen
They will whisper
How to stand
How to bend
How to sway
How to fail
At breaking
As the clocks spin
The clouds pass
The rivers run by
And the trees
They hold the stories
And if we surrender
We can hear
How to rise again
How to reach
And dance
And tumble
And crackle underfoot
In the fall
The trees
They cradle
ancient memories
of moons
And fires
And rains
And winds
That will light each star
in the blanket of the night
That will unfold the mystery
Of an open hand
That says
I am you
You are me
And we are the trees.
