a privilege to share
the deciduous bond
bare-crowned: my self and the trees

leaves, hairs,
epidermal desires,
the great landscaper reclaims all of these

what do you know
about their pain
what do they know
about yours

run through each other
the sharpest love
to find out

out of the night that covers me
black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul

in the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
under the bludgeonings of chance
my head is ******, unbowed

beyond this place of wrath and tears
looms the horror of the shade
yet the menace of the years
finds, will find me unafraid

it matters not how strait the gate
how charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul