things i've planted

I planted a tree today.

Angry.

Just one of innumerable activities

I’d choose

over reading a tech bro’s

manifesto justifying heuristics in writing

—intellectual laziness—

although my belief in

intellectual rigor as a virtue

is on chapped and crumbling ground.

I planted two trees today

and attempted to ignore

the bracken-concealed discarded “For Sale” sign;

the empty, smashed, label-less, 20oz green plastic Sprite bottle;

and the deteriorating wooden picnic table down the hill.

I planted three trees today

and noticed

the violence of the word shove-l,

the grit of soil on sweaty skin, and

the torture of unfired clay jammed

under fingernails.

But then

I planted four trees today

reciting between labored breaths

a prayer to invoke

Mary Oliver.

I planted five trees today,

setting aside

earthworms and grubs and beetles,

to replace them where they belong,

within the saplings’ feeble root systems.

I planted six trees today

from a liminal space

between fury,

desperation,

and

hope for inspiration,

content at least at last

in the end

about some particular future

and

to have one

more chore done.