i don’t know what made me choose this tree, specifically.
it did not choose me.
i swear, i could feel it trembling in my hands on the train home.
a canary frightened of slaughter,

it’s calmed down by now.
trees have no memory of goodbye,
or maybe that’s not true. they’re the higher beings,
i’m thinking they know something we don’t.

“whichever you choose. you live here.”
“nonsense. I live only in my body. Outside of that,
I control nothing and that alone thrills me.”