Mary Buchinger
you can read it in its rings
.
the tree went through a
year of fat and happy laying down the
cellulose a year of sucking up the radiance waving
sun-drunk branches high ….above its head a year of sleek and silk
of lush… and plundering of shadows rising a year of hard… cold rain
a year …of screw.. this of oh …yeah tell it to .. your mama
of… no more no …more I cannot …do this anymore of take.. me
hurricane take .me ..fire and another.. year… of ringing
round any.. way gnawed by deer burrowing.. badgers
beetles.. beetling .. another year another.. year .. another
year oh kingdom of mites and mushrooms come
another year forgiveness of fungi come
insects mold come be done
____
Mary Buchinger is the author of four collections of poetry: Navigating the Reach (forthcoming), e i n f ü h l u n g/in feeling (2018), Aerialist (2015) and Roomful of Sparrows (2008). She is president of the New England Poetry Club and Professor of English and communication studies at MCPHS University in Boston. Her work has appeared in AGNI, Diagram, Gargoyle, Nimrod, PANK, Salamander, SLICE Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere; her website is www.MaryBuchinger.com.