The Bride Tree, Photo © Dave Emley
Keele University Arboretum, North Staffordshire, UK

THE BRIDE TREE LIVES THREE TIMES In willing textures where the wood rat lives       the drought lets trees die twice.       Realism & magic steady one another       & the hurt in your heart     from the human fact circles the edge of the park. The bride       tree blooms late this year, its nature        stored at the edge of day—     some like to avoid the word "nature" but what to put in its place       for ants & thoughts & parking meters, stars & skin & granite, quarks,       the world above & below . . . When you are confused about poetry & misunderstand its brown math,       the sessile branches & a seal of awe attach the tree to the dark.       Someday, you'll need less evidence; the missing won't cease to exist. For now, you stop to eat the free fruit       only you knew would appear & for that you have your human hands,     infinite nature, a single       body standing on this earth—   — Brenda Hillman       The New Yorker, 11-14-2016