Ring in two by twos,
Twinning from the same root.
Count the years
Oh! The years —
You can only see them
When they’re sliced in two.
Cut down, dismembered,
See what they’ve been through:
The summers, the winters,
The hunters, the gatherers,
To them: time is cellulose
And the sound of water coming close.
I see you. Your bark couldn’t save you.
What you built over the ages
Wouldn’t hold; it betrayed you.
Before the saw and the knife
Came a will against your life…
To that, you couldn’t stand.
No, you fell before a man.
Bravo, Friend, bravo.