Your Family Tree

Look at the gray layered bark
And bulbous scars on the trunk of the tree,
Touch the deep crevices, feel
Its strength and longevity.

Come, sit in its shade,
Listen to the words of the wind
Among the dry clinging leaves
On the scaly skeletal limbs.

Follow the twisted beauty
Of its gnarled roots burrowing deep
Into the dark passages
Of a stubborn unyielding earth.