Black ink branches stretch sober against the drunken orange sky determined brush strokes ever upwards side by side lovers carve their names in oak afraid that they alone are not enough to bear witness to their greatness

fearless twigs to root themselves in air and ***** at nothingness ever upwards and alone inside themselves a cold wind blows they brush each other in the breeze while green tips know that somewhere long ago and down below

we were related

but now

no turning back threatened by inflation and rivals that compete through fear and jealousy compare ourselves and someone has to lose happiness no more magic than energy neither made nor lost just changing

hands our currency no worth our pompous pity cannot afford the toll to pass a millimetre closer to ourselves in ever shrinking families as words remove us from our cousins and define our being badly