This piece is part of the Imagined Histories folio, which features art by Devyn Mañibo.

Prologue: The Cherry Blossom Tree

One day a cherry tree overheard the words of two lovers and their child, whose laughter was like petals in the wind…

One said: 

“There is something I love about working nights. 

I catch the world quietly blossoming, like this 

…awake when everyone else is sleeping…”

The other said nothing, tossing the child onto a strong limb. 

Then they walked on, leaving laughter behind.

Lucid Tree I

Lover, 

there are tall trees, great trees.
These fall in the storm.

Not the small ones, they tremble. 
I protect them.

On the margin there are two strategies: deep roots, or a myriad radiating shallow roots penetrating sand, rock, unsuitable soil, hostile soil.

I grow, I decay, darkness comes, lightness comes, children come explorers hooligans climbers claw and scrape into my skin their names into my skin that falls away. And the wood rot enters and eats as I eat and drinks as I drink and thirsts as I thirst. And I grow. 

Nothing arboreal is alien to me. 

Lucid Tree II

Lover, 

I stand
in the forest 

and listen.

And I… I have so many branches.
Up coursing deep waters opening to light,
Cortex quivering 

In the wind 

In the morning – 

Wakened by boring beetles and woodpeckers
I share my juices. 
Infested.
Fertile.
Foul.
Indivisible.
Black Oak. 

In the night

My crown is a gall.