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John Alwyine-Mosely Reads
A Dead Man When a Tree Cries1 The Dead Man when a tree cries
The dead man never wakes to the wail of a ghost frighten by the spite of a tree. For pines have no time for ghosts but a dead man can sit in any branch with or without candles. As flames are ghosts of trees the candles are never lit. The moon if big and bright makes trees cry and ghosts like that. Each tree gathers darkness from the earth and twists it with dead man laughter, spiced with kisses taken without love. Ghosts know this cold blackness and scream for what they lost but the dead man sleeps. 2 More on The Dead Man when a tree cries Dead man dreams are never of trees shaking away the moon. Ghosts leave no footprints by the seashore where the dead man waits for a boat of sun making water molten brass. The trees shaved and shorn are there as the boat pushing the water into fire. Pines cry on the shore but the dead man knows only what is seen and walks on the lines of fire. When a dead man wakes, the circle of trees is always nearer but the ghosts stop laughing. |
John Alwyine-Mosely
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