a tree yearns for the stars

Image: Jörg Marx

When a tree yearns for the stars

it breaks the beams

of the house that has sheltered it

for so long

from the elements. 

When its boughs gasp 

for the night air

the roof's tiles begin to fall away.

Do not hammer them back down

(as so many of us do

for so many years).

Let them fall. 

Let them crumble. 

Be vast. 

Let the reach give over. 

When a tree yearns for the stars,

the stars are its destiny. 

And we are

they

and it

and the only thing

that stands in its way.