Two trees grew in a field where no man prayed, Split by a stone that the thunder obeyed. One sang of heaven in bark and bloom, The other drank deeply from winter’s tomb. Both bent to wind like prophets in sleep, Their roots clasped secrets the river would keep.
O mountain mother, hush not thy voice—For wolves still yawn and the elk rejoice. The stars hang drunken on fir-lit pines. Where the dead breathe fog in the faulted lines. And under their branches, frost-wrought and bare, Lie hoofprints nailed like hymns to prayer.
One tree leaned westward, one toward the sun, Their shadows braided when day was done. No saw, no axe, no farmer’s grief, Could split the vow in bark and leaf. They grew not tall for man’s delight, But to whisper to moose in the lantern night.
Beneath them lay the bones of snow, Where blood once melted, then ceased to flow. Not war, but silence had torn the skin—Of a land where breath is held within. And the trees stood still as if they’d known That God rides bareback through pine alone.
So rage, green giants, and swing your boughs—The storm is just the world’s old vows. Though cabins rot and ranches fall, Still you stand, and still you call. And when my time comes, make me this: A voice in wind between roots and abyss.
Two trees grew in a field where I lay down, One bore a crown, the other a frown. Yet both were true, and both were wild, And both remembered me—as child.
