unsure if today is opening or closing.

unsure if i am hearing the song or the silence.

when i moved into this rental house, there was a baby tree, no bigger than a garden weed

growing in a tiny square of green space near the street. 

i often thought of killing it, (in that i imagined pulling it out of the earth and always knew i could not enact that violence)

but i just watched it grow. i hoped that i would live in this house long enough that the next resident would 

have no choice but to believe it was purposefully planted. 

the baby tree is now more than double my height. 

it feels strange to plant something in these times, to let babies grow while watching fires begin

to burn down all the living forests. 

i know that this cycle is perpetual and so much larger than my individual consciousness as to seem

infinite. 

but something inside me wants to burn along with the forests.