if the cottonwood would learn to
evolve maybe it wouldn’t spend so
much energy making seeds and in
old age booming hollow and
precarious
underneath its branches you ask
it not to fall
you climb its first branch and
hope it heard you the first time
and it answers back with
crack
because it doesn’t know what
else to say
you’re as scared to climb as you are to
fall so you
stay right there
and wait for a damsel to save you
the cottonwood says
crack
again, and you hear
there hasn’t been a damsel here for ten
thousand years or more
you hear it say
crack
again, and you hear
sorry i couldn’t hold you and
you say sorry i climbed you
and you both
fall
down
——
(for cdr)
