Kill it! the children scream. A nightmare of black swirling shadows converge on the tree. They burn, hack, dismember limbs as high as they can reach, finally feeling tall. Torment is harder work than they imagine. Before darkness recedes, they run home, kids after all. With a great shudder, the tree heaves its leaves. Its fearsome shaking disturbs the air, awakening the townspeople. They rush to reattach bark, wrap limbs in burlap, seal open wounds. The children’s parents amend the injuries by teaching them how to heal (the tree). Like matriarch elephants circling their young, the townspeople guard the tree’s nakedness, wait and wait for cambium to mend its damaged skin. They meet, read, sleep under its broken branches. Years go by, tending the tree has imbued the townspeople, including the now-grown children, with kindness and patience. They hold a great celebration when the tree flowers and calls the birds home.
Bodies to branches,
limbs to leaves. A shudder of
heartbeats bursts to blooms.
Celia Lawren is the author of the poetry chapbook, Among Dead Things, a chronicle of tragedy,
loss, and resilience. Her poems have appeared in literary journals such as Arts & Letters, South Carolina Review, the Appalachian anthology Women Speak, Stirring, and Grey Sparrow.
She has received a Best New Poets 2025 nomination. She resides in Knoxville,
Tennessee, after living many years in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Heavy Feather Review 