I know trees:
I know trees, taller each time I see them
touching each other
just a little more
as if laughing,
as if to say, remember the mud?
I know great trunks when tickled by the right breeze
sing louder than any bird you’ve ever heard. You better applaud, too.
Their leaves like curtains
branches twisting into high-fives and low curtsies.
I know shrubs, fuller each time I try passage.
Machetes snap against their crown.
Underneath bear leaves and old shoots love is afforded
to whomever they deem
sickening enough.
I befriended them all submerged
as a garden hose water-beaten
forced to endure like
rocks under a waterfall,
rooted, and they drank themselves above meniscus still.
Ammunition and fuel became
ammunition and fuel.
I know trees.
To hold is easy if
it is onto each other.
My soul has grown deep like the forest.
Matthew is a Jamaican author and poet. Matthew’s work explores subject matters including queerness, race, nationhood, and mental health. His work has been featured in Arc Poetry, Westwind Poetry, OUCH! magazine, Pinhole Poetry, and more. Matthew was the 2022-2023 Student Writer in Residence at Western University where he graduated with a B.A. in Arts and Humanities and English Literature.