Fallen Monarch

Still, I speak of the battle,

how wind lifted seeds from my arms,

and my kingdom fell to the saplings.

I rot in my resting place,

hide pocked with arrow slots and snow.

You thought me stunned, I bleed

floral channels, rivulets of lichen,

flanks drinking sun,

not over the act of being alive,

yet Gullivered, unable to move

til earth heaves me to my river bed

and I can float, weightless as a seed.

twine us to our fate

to bed here spring on spring

root-bound,

deepening

your life is my life

our skins coarsening,

I bear your bones,

I bear your bones on me

slashed and burned

I screamed

needles and cones

raped me

until I healed, re-grew,

scarring to a bridge,

laced with

children's heads

gleaming and shining,

brief

chunks of me excised

bled sap, wept

as they tunneled

with their passing

my tissue

stronger than before

reparation

inside me now

so curiously

in their passing