Sweet Being

The deer will eat
an apple tree clean to the ground
in its leafy infancy
and should it reach again
for a while strip its skin
grind to nothing its twigs
as a delicacy

but amid confused abundance
should one grow
out of reach overlooked
its trunk gets unpalatable
rough
the sweet being
once all one
no longer evident
under scarred heavy bark
the sweet being
sensed now as longing overheard
as flower and fruit

Copyright © 2004 Paul Hunter All rights reserved
from Breaking Ground
Silverfish Review Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission