On the Common - Andrew Simms
Long-listed written pieces of 250 words or under submitted to the 2021 Urban Tree Festival writing competition on the theme of “trees close to you”
On the Common
A tree flames green
from seed, parting
surprised Earth
unfolds upwards
warmth drawn, no
idea of the delicious
sunlight yet to
lick it leaves
or first stem tickle
of ants, shock
at skin gone hard
rings wrinkling outwards
until birds perch
and worse
late one spring
above a hedge
the horizon it did not
suspect rises, and this
sapling wants to sing
then the indignant
sting of autumn’s
wind whip, the lush
hush of winter, novel
weight of snow
how could it know
a knife would carve
letters, smarting
its bark in a curious
act of love
or the way shade made
unexpected friends
generations born and
buried beneath
reaching boughs
the tree’s life though
seems endless, everything
arrives in surprise
because youth cannot
imagine age, realise its own
ungnarled incompleteness
only flounder forward
woody-eyed amazed
like all the lives
that went before
Andrew Simms is an author, political economist and campaigner. He is co-director of the New Weather Institute, coordinator of the Rapid Transition Alliance. Twitter @AndrewSimms_uk
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