If a tree falls in a forest
& if we make our dining
room chairs out of its freight
& if we were meant to haul
it, haul that behemoth tree
the way one hauls faith,
debt, imagination, a car
from a slushed over ditch
& if the tree is older
than we are, older than our entire
life separately or added together
& if we put the tree back
into the ground in our yard,
a Christmas come in June
& if we were to unspool gold
ribbons through its lower branches
& name these soft rememberancers
& no one, not a single
person is around to hear that

This poem appeared in We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Heritage, edited by Hala Alyan and Zeina Hashem Beck and published by Persea Books.