Sunlight (I & II)

Hopeful hands nestle an acorn’s promise

of majesty in a pot of humble soil

the acorn slumbers, dreaming of the canyon

where its ancestors breathed before they fell

She doesn’t know what “cancer” means, only

knows a visit to her friends in white coats

helps her run for days after, dance in the grass

wag her tail for joy, live with all her heart

Sleep slips away as the acorn extends

its first embryonic root to suckle

water and minerals, unfurls its first shoot

opens leaflets to sip sunlight greenly

The size of her heart has doubled though she

doesn’t know it, doesn’t know this tumor

began in her mother’s womb, only knows

she loves her life and there’s no time to slow down

We carry the seedling to the canyon

plant hope in its new everlasting home

tend it, water it, build it a shelter

from curious deer foraging for feed

She knows this walk, knows our favorite walk

the pond where she plays with children and ducks

but now—for the first time, she can’t walk, though

she still tries, falling into tender arms

The youthful oak lifts new branches, future

home of birds and bulwark of animals—

stops short—trapped by the shelter now a cage

limbs spiraling, pressing against the walls

Let them go—now is the time—set them free

Let her rest in sunlight, in peace

sleep safe in unbroken embrace

Let it grow high where the falcons glide

keep the promise of its centuries

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