to the root I set my sight

to know the future

I must know the past

and of the earth is the origin

my first embrace must be the tree

where rugged bark shields softness

guarded from extremes

thrown by the world

just inside cambium hides delicate

whose cells are of two worlds

both bark and inner wood

both dark and ethereal at once

I must come to love the sapwood

nourishing the whole system

like ventricles offering out blood

here I come to know the heartwood

as the soul of the entity

although at it’s core

there is fabric death

this death is the strength

serendipity structure centered

a million fibers of cellulose

glued together

lignen bonding the wide

branches of the family