Another Tree

by Bibhu Padhi (June 2015)

Look at the trees

and smile;

leave each tree

alone, all to itself.

 

Don’t look

at the tree straight,

or for too long,

but only sideways;

 

else, your eyes

may be too much of

a witness to make

a twig, a leaf

 

wither, go limp

in the indifferent air.

 

Each tree has its

own season;

you have yours too.

It might be dreaming

of the leaf that its

bare branches

do not hold now.

 

It is patient, 

knows what waiting

means, to see

your other forms too.

 

Trees, hills, clouds,

rains, the sea.

 

Why are you sad

when it is bare,

without leaves?

They will come

when it needs them.

 

___________________________

 

Bibhu Padhi’s eighth and ninth books of poetry, Magic Ritual and Brief Seasons: 60 Love Songs, appeared almost back to back earlier this year. His ninth book of poems, Midnightt Diary, is due out late late this month. He lives with his family in Bhubaneswar, India.

 

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