Dappled hues streaming
Light as emerald sparkle
Filtered through an insect eye
A rustling symphony showers
Sound widening an infant
World smells of sap,
Laden leaf and blossom.
Touching rough bark
Tasting the green air
As his cradle tips to and fro
Beneath a soothing canopy
Later, on that endless Summer day
A boy with frayed shorts and scuffed knees
Climbing Jack’s beanstalk to discover
A land richer than he dared imagine
Sitting on the shoulder of a friendly giant
Gazing at the undulating roll of field and forest
And a vast majestic sky
Taller, a gangling youth carving the name of the girl he will marry
Into the furrowed trunk of the Cradle Tree whittling away childhood
Stealing a kiss in its shade prizing open new worlds of pain and delight
A book worm among the caterpillars feasting on images of thought
Hiding from someone calling his name
Then a mother´s tears falling like raindrops dripping from sodden foliage
Leaning a shoulder on the sturdy oak, waving, white hair like dead flowers
A father, vague, obscured by the sylvan shadows cast against the cottage wall
Branches of the Cradle Tree swaying, like arms reaching out to pull him back
Walking away to a war far beyond his roots
Now beneath a different tree – straight beams planed smooth glint of nails, standing upright listening to accusers; a summary of judgment passed in accord with Draconian law - desertion, dereliction of duty. Duty to whom? Straining to hear above the constant whistling tintinnabulations piercing his ears - itching, scraping soft neck on coils of harsh coarse hemp tightening throat, shaking head declining the Gift of cloth to cover his eyes feeling a heavy tread approach from behind, a gnarled hand firm on his shoulder, creak of wooden gears grinding cogs, urinating, shame, falling...
staring up at emerald
butterflies chasing clouds
leafy breeze summoning
the haze of summer long
shadows creeping across bark
marking the passage
of endless daze
dreaming drowsily of
warm arms and
smiling sighs rocking
gently to and fro back
and forth hanging
from hemp cords
beneath
the Cradle Tree.
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