Stolen Trees

The sound we make sleeping,

quiet, the trees at night

stolen by the dark silhouettes of men.

Such a strange peace,

the empty sky.

And the men so quietly moved

black walnut trunks

to the edge of the world,

transformed dark wood

into the sleek handles of rifles.

Where they were

the air is thin.

The rain,

I could climb it up to the sky.

Vacant places where the dark

vertebraes of trees

pushed sugar

rising up from trunks.

They held crows

in their branches

feathers scorched black.

The wings took shape

in the air around us.

Trees whose wood flash

light. Trees, beautiful trees

who can kill a man

like the fallen wings of crows.