By Judith Arcana
The Portland Upside
November 2009
The Portland Upside
November 2009
Photo by Julie Kellyloves through the seasons:
bare trunk, fat buds, full green, wet red
and their names: sweet gum
cypress oak spruce willow maple
red bud forest pansy
and their parts: leaf cone flower
bark root branch boll twig needle
lacy fans of rough crochet, pods
like cigars, like rattling gourds.
He loves their cast-offs crisp on the ground
their sound under his boots on the trail
rustling, breaking down into dust.
He loves, later, their sawn boards:
wood, its grain a watery maze
polished, rubbed into light, glowing
still with heat from the heart of the tree
like his own heart, pumping dark liquid
out to the limbs, out to his own warm hands.
Judith Arcana writes poems, stories, essays and books. This poem, written for her partner Jonathan, first appeared in the Canadian journal STUDIO, online. Visit Judith’s website at www.juditharcana.com
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