BARK & EMBERS
HANNAH BROPHY
How tall and straight we stand, impervious to nature’s elements — a survivor of the seasons. Cycling through the changes year after year. We are alone and yet not. Passers-by avail themselves of our shade and protection from the weather. Dogs mark us as their territory, even though we do not bend to another’s will.
Humans, if they notice us at all, carve their initials into our trunks. All eager to establish that they were here, if only for a fleeting moment. They attempt to claim us as their own, not recognizing or acknowledging our superiority. We pity those who grow no roots, unable to spread their branches and leaves to the sun. They are transitory creatures, not one with nature. Their existence is brief, but definitive as they appropriate our land and leave behind concrete jungles.
And do they appreciate what they’ve accomplished? They do not. Once they’ve spread their domination, they move on to another life, but in their wake, they take our minerals and other resources and leave the earth bar-ren, polluting our skies, and lacerating our ground.
We feel badly for these creatures without grounding, lacking the protection of a tough outer layer like bark. They believe they own the world and everything in it, but we were here before them and will be here afterwards. Our seeds fall to the ground to repopulate the forest. When humans exist no more, we will take back the land and other things they’ve left behind. In the end, we always win.
Humans think I’m wrong. They would remind me of fires, hurricanes, tornadoes and, of course, the worse disaster of all — loggers, that can destroy us. You are alone, they gloat, but we smile to ourselves, knowing we will never perish.
It is true, a single one of us can be destroyed, but each of us is linked to a greater whole. Even in decay, we serve the cycle of life, fostering families of fungi, insects and wild things. Humans scrounge the forest floor to providing kindling for fire to warm their fragile bodies. We protect families of those smaller than us, birds, squirrels, monkeys, snakes. Many an animal has found rest and safety in our branches. Unlike humans we recognize that every plant, every animal, every molecule are all parts of life. Each has a job to do. None try to corral others into doing their bidding — except humans, who grow our brothers in the yards in a futile attempt to tame our wildness, believing they can harness the cycle of life, only to be defeated time and again.
We will die, but we come again. Jesus said, “The meek will inherit the earth,” but maybe he meant something beyond humans. Maybe he meant us — the trees of the world. | HB
A message sent from a powerful point of view.