Poetry Four

Thorn Tree
A branch of thorns prickles at my skin
making a bleed that will heal in air and sunshine
So many thorns I simply look at them from afar
absorbing their lessons of truth and reality
Each in unique shape and twist
Each a truth stark and naked

The twisting one...love bidden and lost
outlined in mysterious glowing chemistry
elusive and vaguely shaped
coming and going like a Cheshire cat with a mocking grin

Another...addictions and excesses twin sticks...sick and slimy
half dead but persistent and unforgiving

That one there...a lie starkly outlined against the sky
a shape and facade of beauty in manipulative curl
beckoning to be touched to feel it's smoothness
then the hidden poison prick

This one...a living promise of trust
broken and flung in twisted ruin upon the ground
amid the stones...distrust...gasping in dry dust
skinny grotesque thing stuck up within the stones
as if it could make a claim to life by seeming to be erect

One giant tree blacking out ray and raindrops
blacking out the bird song of words
that sweeten the dew of truth and trust
Tree of Thorns
Tree of Barren
Tree of Hopeless
Tree of Missed and Screeching Notes
Tree that spits out seeds that grow only to thorns

Covering the garden in the death of hope
making the earth a rancid sour foul and acid mush
denying flowers the barest of sustenance
of dew of friendship or rain of closeness
time and again in words repeated and repeated
once again...over and over in patient lesson
in reasoned logical looping
in a single underlying thread of communication
with stormy petulance with persistent poetry
with constant and begging pleas
I approached this monster tree of death

Killing the garden was not the thorns of lost love
not the thorns of addiction
not the vagrancies and truths of life
As I made one last dying effort to make the garden live
to kill the thorny branches
An unseen hand...flung me away
cold iron grasp upon on my wrist

As I lay close to the ground I felt a petal
soft smooth upon my cheek...a gentle healing thing
I moved my face to feel it's touch
It was a flower...each petal a single kiss
only enough petals to form a single flower...yet...it was there
Upon my hands and knees I crawled
beneath the reaches of the branches
beneath the black and gnarled thorn tree

Here and there...in tiny twinkles of reflected light
were the forgotten memories...the flowers

Oh here...this one a day in September
a kiss spontaneous...a single kiss
enough to make a flower complete and whole
Ah...this one...day of simplicity
each petal a night of music...talking from the heart...peace
And here one that was almost magical
a human touch to a human friend
one single one...unbidden...unasked...unexpected
Oh and this one...a day of forgiveness
a promise of beginning...a promise of friendship
the petals just one or two...having been torn asunder
by a thorny wind
now forming a tiny bud of a new petal beginning

Ah...this is the talk of life flower
the learning and sharing of knowledge
so precious with each petal growth of life
wisdom to have forever
This one...each petal a moment of shared laughter
in it's center the mirthful and merry
crunchie cookies in the snow
the sweet memory...laughing till it hurt so good
as I had not laughed for so very long
And here...fresh birth of understanding and trust
in the human goodness side of life
here...hidden...shy...trusting and vulnerable
the little boy who could only blink back tears
of silent outrage at miscarried justice

There was a story told...legend perhaps
lost in time and memory...but living in beauty
And so the story was of love
a man and a woman lived in this garden
The only thorns were those that held the flowers
on strong branches in nature's protection
There lived flowers of trust amid blossoms of self-esteem
for all about was the sun of loving
and the afternoon shower of encouragement
Birds and bees sang and fluttered
amid spring butterflies of adoring looks and magic kisses

Adorning the garden were two beautiful shapes
twin entwined 'A'
for afternoon delight and aftermath glow
affectionate touch and ageless trust
affirmation words...affinity of purpose
aesthetic connections...adventured sharings
Anchor for twin souls that grew and gave and shared
and poured into an accumulation of love
unasked and freely given
accepting acceptance

As I left the garden
as I had when I arrived long ago...I held within my hand a pearl
For the beauty of the memories of the loves we have known in life
and for the memory of those flowers
that died beneath the storm of thorns