The Trees and I

I climbed a white birch because it looked safe enough
But I scraped my knee on the way to the top so
I carefully made my way back down

I climbed a beech tree but
I couldn’t get a good grip without crinkling the leaves
And when I accidentally crushed one in my hand,
I felt so bad I carried its remains all the way to the ground

I climbed a ficus benjamina, this one
So much bigger than the others and
I came pretty far
But I swear as soon I reached for the last branch,
My foot slipped and I tumbled all the way to the ground,
And it knocked the wind out of me

From then on I decided
It’s too hard to climb trees
But it’s even harder to avoid them
Because we used to have so much fun together,
Trees and I. We were beautiful.

I want to hate trees. I’ve been crossed so many times

But the trees give us oxygen
So without them, we can’t breathe
And when we can’t breathe, we can’t live, can we?