My Tree
You might have a house
But I have a tree.
I am a tree in a forest
And my roots are touching
My friends
Who drank the same rain.
I have a patch of forest
Occupied by myself
And my friends.
We face the same draught
We move to the same wind.
I happen to be a pine tree
Next to an oak.
I have birds that the oak
Does not have.
I have cones that fall
And are like nothing other trees have.
I smell different than an oak tree.
You would like for my birds
To fly into your house,
To stay within your house,
Not realizing that birds
Live in trees.
So are you a tree
Or a house?
How can you tell?
Well a tree is a living thing
That grows
And drinks the rain and the sun.
A house is a thing
That is built by the mind of a man.
A house does not grow as a tree,
Following the math of god.
It might grow larger with additional rooms,
Created by the math of a man.
If you force a bird to live in a house
It will be removed from God.
If you try to take a tree and turn it into a house
It will be removed from God.
Please do not turn my tree into your house
And please do not try to cage my birds.
Body & Soul
Is my soul leaving my body
Or is my body leaving my soul?
Is my soul dead?
My soul disconnected from my body
And my body walks as a shell?
A longing.
I long for my body to hold my soul
But it captivates it
No longer
In the chest area
Where the lungs don’t feel
The warmth of a good heart
And feet are detached
Dangling into an icy pond.
I am chilled to the bone
My back curling around
Tired distress
And my soul responds
With recognition of
An inability to hold
Any water in my eyes
As they have been cried,
Already at death’s door.
I feel love trying to push her back in
My soul
But she has become forlorn
Alienated and manipulated
No longer a part of my frame
The frame I had adorned lovingly
Over years of joyous, reckless abandon.
Had I known it was actually abandonment
I would have been less joyous
And more careful with her.
I always thought she would come back.
O my soul
How I long for thee.