Forsaken Altitude
“Loneliness could mean abiding peace” - Kiran Desai
Vying for sunlight, branches
Gnarl and tangle, a raised pit of snakes.
Interlocking, the heady friction between them
Provoking cankers and decay, angry infection.
Roots circle, girdling the base of the trees,
Hampering nutrient flow, a slow strangulation.
You labor, woven into the stifling tapestry,
Your limbs eager for a glorious desolation.
–
Were you to instead spawn from mountain soil, the scant oxygen
Would engender a trade of broadleaf growth for dense, resinous leaflets.
Root systems wend, labyrinthine, into bedrock fractures,
Dependent only on the cool, exanimate stone beneath for stability.
Free of neighboring growth, limbs may stretch as far as weight will bear,
Leaves curling into Fibonacci spirals meant to withstand high wind.
You are now polylepsis, the fairytale tree of countless layers,
Shedding your skin like paper, unencumbered and unbound.
–
At the precipice of the treeline, you are finally relieved,
Standing solitary, competition and complication stripped away.
You become mythic and unseen, known only to the feathery vapor of the clouds,
Your branches their own canopy, your deepening roots undisturbed.