ever is before this silent tree

  in its growth messy
at the alone north corner
of a two-storey building
advertising the slight breeze
and reap-eating its mantras:
‘Don’t get caught up in that god thing’

offering processed sunlight
in tiny cream cups
to forty about fat bumblebees

the birds watch this clever ploy
this naked sacred ritual

they sit on the pregnant tree’s branches
singing songs of birthing
  calling forth the fruit

while the tree advertises the breeze
and reap-eats
but, this time the mantra is different:
‘Whatever you will study you will destroy’

and as the bumblebees tip the tiny cups
hanging upside down
the birds call out
the tree reap-eats

and       still
ever is before this silent tree.

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Salil Chaturvedi
salilwheels@gmail.com