Like the Trees

by James Crews

You have been waiting for the body to say,
This is not an emergency, you are safe.
And when it finally does, in a whisper
you almost don’t believe, you can breathe
a full breath again, and then another,
at last trusting the open arms of trees,
even their menacing shadows at midnight.
Now you know everything that grows must
also feel pain, must fear and doubt until they
sense this same quickening, like sap rising
up in the trunk and spreading through 
each limb. You have lived as if underground, 
but now you are breaking open, breaking 
free, becoming so vast and green, you make 
a shady place for others to rest in.

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