Apple Tree in Sunless Winter
Apple tree in sunless winter,
Time rests dreaming
On the ground at your feet
By an ice-hemmed stream,
And you dance.
Bending to the hands of the wind
Rough in your hair,
And in your bare-skinned arms
A starling squats, eyes
Glittering.
Her last leaf yields to the silence,
Dream-gilded leaf
Surrendering to arms
Of heedless wind and
Time dreaming.
Within her swells a world unseen,
Swallowing life
In her sheltering folds,
Tree by a lost stream
Forgotten.
She gathers strength time after time,
To give form to
That asking to be born,
If it will not come
She will die.
She will offer herself again
And again, life
Bursting dauntless within
Skin tough and tender,
Giving skin.
Apple tree in sunless winter,
I think you know more of life
Than I ever will.
