The Indifference of Trees

The Indifference of Trees

 

-The Best of Ambitions--

 

-

 

When I was very young, I was abducted by a tree,

Bound to a branch, and left hanging there forever.

Oh, then my darkest fears became my best ambitions!

 

But all my noble endeavors

Are the result of childhood trauma.

 

For when I first beheld the face of evil,

I could express only outrage and inexplicable

Feelings of shame and supernatural betrayal.

But, as I grew, I learned to parse my response

With the weight of universally approved denial

And that allowed me to more comfortably skirt

The awful reality of what I am and where I am �"

 

In my intercourse with others �" to be sure!

But with even greater urgency within me.

 

Every childhood trauma involves a lesson

In how the physical world is indifferent,

To our fragile and uninvited existence.

 

Trees do not care about the plight of a darling little boy,

And every physical object is a threat to his well-being.

 

Therefore, I have sought career achievement,

Agitated for reform, and written poetry.

 

These activities distract me from revisiting too often

Or at least too deeply, the indifference of trees.

Reviews

[Carlos Lorenzo Estrada]

This poem stayed with me because of its harsh and truthful reality. And yet I wondered that there is a cruelty within the indifference of those who are much like trees. As one of the great American Jewish writers once stated: "Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor — never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten." It is through his powerful words that I will always stand by humanity and aspire to be better. For to do less is to travel a road towards inhumanity.