Tree Bark

She was dipped in dark and filled with light

Crow-winged lark, still filled with fright

A glowing stark contrast spilled by night

Unknowing are those aimed to still her flight

Wise patient eyes dart here, guard and guide

Rise, oh, ancient heart, fear no stars nor sky

Entice no contagious trace of tears he cries

Though I am beast, I too had dear spirits die

I hold no cards that read my captor's name

I sold no part that bled wine after shame

For shame be mine? Your stains last for ages

Or is it a game we find as we rearrange past pages?

Born in the same rewind, so estranged in clasped cages

Sworn kin does aim to find growth contained in stages

A century of torture and a millennium of hurt

The mention of quartered limbs and lost nerves

Descend the wings of ordered grim rot toward earth

Relentless things contorted a prim garroted soul's surge

Defense can bring distorted hymns of forgotten worth

A wretched man thinks you're gorgeous in the dim, ill-gotten hurt

I see you, little bird, not so little anymore

They clipped your wings and stripped your feathers

And made brittle your core

Gripped sore stings can rip more weathered, faded, whittled will, instilling war

But she stepped out to sing for better traded be a kennel to soar

So slightly her flight breathes despite trite themes

Scarring this poor meadow lark

But, ah, not poor at all, she says, I'm the tree, not the bark