The Adequate Tree and The Gnarled Pine

In an orchard

of acquaintances

the adequate tree

with forgettable fruit

lived its days and months

and years

               Far from

The gnarled pine

Thick stemmed

              Misshapen

Knots on its boughs 

        and  trunk

like deathmasks

        Twisted

through rupture and repair

with floods and the wind

Its roots like

              petrified talons

                     seizing soil and stone

                        History trapped in its resin