The Wicked Trees

Trauma gives lives narrative
Structure, pegs to hang hats on—
Twists of the fall, the assault,

The hospitalization,
The betrayal, the firing.
Identities grow from them,

The way trees are often shaped
By wind, fire, lightning, pruning,
Blights and other injuries.

Trees are just interesting,
However, the strangely shaped
Only curiosities.

So far as you know, they don’t
Construct personal stories
To tell themselves, windy nights,

When all the woods are moaning
For the deep fragility
Of forests exposed to storms,

To tell themselves, the other
Trees did this to me, this is
The fault of the wicked trees.