History is Not a Great Tree by Fleda Sue Brown

History is not a great tree. It’s more
like a bush, I think, or maybe
a sponge, soaking up and periodically
wringing out. Wow, a tree would mean
you could get to the top, to the upper
branches that would weave
from your weight! It would be broad
from there, and still. You could see
dis-ease roll across like wind over wheat.
The way you see a tenement
from the wide glass of your penthouse.
You could imagine yourself down there,
sleeping in your unwashed clothes,
breathing the factory fumes,
eating what’s available at Seven Eleven.
You could almost imagine
dying just from living. Growing fatter
in the process. No wonder the germs
love people, no wonder the germs
are joining hands as if they were
playing Red Rover. History would be
branching and tangling and translating
down there. It would be growing
improbable and efficient. It might come
by air. It could show up either as
the time-that-was, or as the beginning:
an annunciation, a trumpet you didn’t
know you heard, until you did.

From: http://losangelesreview.org/history-not-great-tree-fleda-brown/

Date: 2020

By: Fleda Sue Brown (1944- )

Tags: 2020, fleda sue brown, history is not a great tree, history is not a great tree it’s more, poetry