Wings

👁️🪽👁️

Bending down 
I lift the fingernails 
of the big tree

light as a feather 
brittle as a board
and for a moment 
I fly away
with wicker wings 

beyond suburbs 
and Valuemart 
beyond space time 
and the distorted 
version of my true self 
that others project 
onto me in the shadowy hall 
of mirrors 

and I am just a girl flying
with wings of dead branches 
and I know the secret of the trees
and I keep it safe 
all for me
in the cupped hands 
of my heart 

But I look down
and drop 
like a seed pod 
my secret 
spilling
onto the soil:

all is made of love 
even the worms 
and white fungus 
on the roots 
of the cedar
know

but not everyone 
can feel it 

they call it rot and ruin 
WILL YOU?