On Suffering

Suffering are the roots of an apple tree
Awaiting the sweetness foreseen prior to a bond with soil
Roots are shallow.
He waits;
The land around him is fallow.
Instinctively;
He digs deeper, grows stronger and taller.
a cold winter's night and now his limbs are bare.
a brush fire who leaves ash and soot above his roots.
a child pulling the bark away from his trunk.
fungal root rot sucking the life out of him.

He sees a better place across the horizon, in another plain;
where the water flows and the sweetness upon his limbs fill him with love;
he gives back to the soil and to the animals what love has given him.

But he can't leave.
His roots are too deep.

Eugene Finley