A Note From My Tree and The Law of Rocks

by Beverly Dahlen

A Note from my Tree

Beginning at the skin
I work my way inward along the branches
looking for the one that leads to the ground.
I have been out here a long time now.
Many nights.
They are not sending the rescue teams.
There are too many people lost
in the mountains. The helicopters beat
back and forth looking for bodies.
My brother is stationed
somewhere in the jungle. Here is his picture
with field glasses. He has lost a lot of weight
and can't ever come home.
My father is out in his rowboat alone at night
trying to save people from drowning.
My mother won't come out of the bathroom.
If I am quiet she won't see me.



The Law of Rocks

      is keeping still.

They do not move against us.

They move. In their own time.

They have no time.
We cannot understand them at all.

Unless they are broken.

That way we eat them.
It keeps us from madness.



from Out of the Third, published by Momo's Press, 1974