Shards - 16 - Trees And The Taste Of Shadow

Shards - The 1 Poem Podcast of Cameron Semmens

Trees and The Taste of Shadow When a tree falls how can its shadow stand? And yet in the forest behind our eyes shadows stretch far into the future. Even when the tree has long since fallen and rotted and returned to the fecund, hungry soil of history; even when the sun, with its golden tongue, is licking the ridges of mountains memories are longer than shadows. And the taste of darkness is a sharp, metallic tang that can, with enough swings, cut right through the most deep-rooted loves and thick-trunked family. In shadow, bare dirt pushes back the greener grass. In shadow, consoling moss softens the edges. But what does this mean for the forest behind our eyes? You tell me for once! I’m sick of walking these paths, pulling answers from trees like cicada shells. Tell me – this shadow these trees what does it all mean?