Tree of Life

GRACE SCHULMAN

TREE OF LIFE

I

If you can't see the wood for me,

so much the better. Tiers of needles

depend from arms that make arcs

when the wind disturbs them.

My hands command.

Even in this hairy grove

I cast tatterdemalion shadows

changing as air plays taut strings.

u

I have deadly names:

hemlock, white pine, arbor

vitae (tree of life

meaning no life);

I hold souls that wake

when you pass.

Do not enter my husk,

my veins burrow underground

in dendrons and rivulets.

Through leaded triangles

of mullioned glass,

my charred legs claw the earth.