Sea of Trees by Gregory Richard Barden

jade canopy waving while it whispers the lush secret, compelled delicious word of myriad words casting shadowed merriment at a woven briar carpet

colored strings, winding… waiting tangled labyrinth, so deep and dark that dew still clings at mid-day, leafy tresses tickling azure, sopping sun like thirst – bright and warm above straight trunks like steady soldiers fingery tendrils burrow deep to find purchase – ruddy earth, cool as rime, rich with rooty rot – nature’s marrow to breathe the branches

Fuji’s frilly garden skirt listen, tender… soft now, the hush of mys’tries – this forest bides all, yet stars still glisten its black heart – desire, a mossy coat … dour… waiting hear the voice, low, the breath of breaths, murmuring – it begs, come… in a thousand gentle lullabies, with the language of the ages and the ends –

voice sweet as death it calls to the misty meandering, one dire dalliance – grandest adventure of all – the dazzling dream that –

never wakes.