a slice
through clocks
and calendars
wars and plagues
warm centuries, glaciers
empires and the lives of hermits
crouched in stony huts
a slice
the tree lies
on its side
white painted metal points
locate the ring where jesus
stopped cutting wood or when
the magna carta was signed or
marie antoinette lost her head
(not long long before this tree
was chopped) and those years
those round layers look the same
as others unless it rained a lot
that spring or hardly rained at all
like the girl sang back in the sixties
when the world was watching san francisco
it doesn't mean shit to a tree
unless it was a year of saws and axes
that would matter
but probably not to stones
or businessmen or those who sell
apocalypse from door to door
an end to history
does the granite care
about hydrogen or oxygen?
I do, I'll trade you two of mine
for one of yours and we'll
join a river, flow down to the sea
get salty then evaporate
and condense to fall
on seedlings
born from
fire
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