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SAPLING<br />
Twilight, each morning<br />
before <strong>the</strong> mist<br />
he slips his Mo<strong>the</strong>r’s<br />
hive, for <strong>the</strong> forest.<br />
There is a glade<br />
a secret place where<br />
he sits. While Mo<strong>the</strong>r<br />
and Fa<strong>the</strong>r embrace<br />
sleep, his eyes sip<br />
small movements of earth<br />
<strong>the</strong> clay knots of worms.<br />
There is no reason<br />
for this. He grows roots<br />
while <strong>the</strong> sun rises<br />
follows rough limbs<br />
of oak across shifting<br />
cloud, where broad daylight<br />
seeps from greyness.<br />
Here he can taste<br />
<strong>the</strong> newness of grass<br />
fill his ear’s belly<br />
with spangles of finch<br />
<strong>the</strong> chitterings of squabs<br />
soft words from a wood-pigeon.<br />
A cuckoo’s woodwind<br />
sounds him out.<br />
This entire forest creeps<br />
through his nostrils<br />
fills his head with light<br />
bright and true. He knows<br />
that soon he must go<br />
to school. His parents will<br />
put a stop to all this<br />
nonsense. As he leaves<br />
he hears, distilled<br />
by far distance –<br />
<strong>the</strong> solitary bark<br />
of a dog, <strong>the</strong> first thin<br />
clack of <strong>the</strong> woodman’s axe.<br />
POEM 8 Deforestation: <strong>the</strong> Woods<br />
© <strong>Mario</strong> <strong>Petrucci</strong> 2008<br />
Reprinted from: Bosco (Hearing Eye, 2001)
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