April Anthology 2018: Strange Fruits (04/02)

There’s a tree I know keeps dropping bloody fruit down at my feet -

Sadistic windfall apples I can’t easily ignore.

It catches birdflight thoughts and twists them, breaks their longing wings,

And tries to shatter all the far horizon-hopes they had in store.

And I -

I cannot uproot it, its gnarled roots have run too deep,

Trailing down brainstem and throat until it finds the heart of me.

But I -

You know I cannot leave them, all its dazed bone-broken dreams,

The destinies my demon-tree has laid in store.

I will keep on

And pick them up

In my two fragile, clumsy hands,

And take them home and heal them

‘Til they learn to fly again.