Your Struggles is What Creates Your Depth

MOTHER EARTH.

(February 23rd 2024)
Just as trees
We all start from roots
Some of ours so caked in mud
It's hard to dig them from the ground
But eventually they grow stronger as
We gain nutrients
We breathe for each other
Without one the other can not survive
Every vein another branch

Each of us is rooted in pain
Maybe we haven't grown into it yet
We all live through hardships
And cracks inside ourselves
Some just show it before others

When I was in high school after my father was already drunk
We watched rain and heard the thunder echo through the moonlight skies
The lightning struck the tree
The fire shot up and out like atomic bombs
Slowly half of it fell
As the owner screamed
For her house
My dad sipped his beer once more

Most days I feel like the struck by lightning tree
I wonder how many of my roots will die with me
And others I spread outwards
Some days I hope their poisonous
Others I know are peaking out from the ground
For someone to rest for awhile

As kids
Trees were rope swings and ever changing
Leaves
Library time spoke of The giving tree
How she gave and gave away herself
But yet she remained happy
As kids we worshipped that book
Like it was the Bible
As adults we understand the irony
This life is rooted in our stories
Even the ones we put to paper
Every word is our own
We act like we don't write our stories
Like it's ghostwriters
Maybe as kids
Maybe as adolescents
Or teens
Our roots were decided for us
Until they weren't

This solidarity I feel under oak trees because they remain one of the strongest
I begin to remember every little moment my roots have and will never poison my
giving tree kid
Because if all I am is a tree
I'd happily give my everything