Branches draped elegiac,
possessive as lovers.
Everywhere the sun.
Lip of the horizon
split by teal sea. You’ve sewn me
up again, helped tuck twice-wound
ends away. Attend to my bruise garden:
cyclic, coiled stitches. Hands rooting
near the last caterwauling,
you reopened a rip unable
to mend. You said, We call
dat ol’ man’s beard.
Much better than
Spanish moss, I marvelled,
it gives trees
the wisdom they deserve.
My heart’s eye wide at the bark’s resignation
its acceptance of consequences.
When I think of a small mercy,
this sweet morsel forms on my tongue.
Soyini Forde (21st century) Trinidad
Source: ANMLY
ol’ man’s beard - Clematis vitalba (also known as Traveller's Joy)
Spanish moss - Tillandsia usneoides
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