The Tree Whose Only Gift Is Shade

Nodding man whose patience is
The aching limb that bleeds
Severed from its tree

Find a light
Faint flickering
Then give that light to me

As when the Christ Child
Clapped frankincense in palms
And Mary donned
The red serene


Meager tree whose only gift
Is shade between
Fallen leaf and seed

With only fruit the shadow
Silhouette the lawn and soothe to sleep
The noontide rester

As when the Christ Child
Clapped frankincense in palms
And Mary donned
The red serene

And dust motes Carolingian
Bore the distant sun
And filigreed its beams
For the waker