Beech-Tree Shadows

Beech-Tree Shadows

 

See how the tree’s negative

Moulds itself to ground,

Climbs its neighbour’s bole,

Holds out pincered limbs

To the sun’s projection?

 

It is like love: a dark nothing

Cast across a void, subject

To shifting, prone to falter

When it goes dull, contentedly

Wearing another’s graffiti.

 

See how the tree’s negative

Gilds itself with leaves,

Tresses its girth with ivy fringes,

Darkens moistly at the groin

Where trunk meets root?

 

It is like love, dressing up

And making do, clinging

To contours, sweating out

A wet devotion. The light’s

Still: but Earth’s in motion.

 

Poem by Giles Watson, 2012.

 

Done