The Macbeth Tree

POSTED IN contemporary poetry May 8, 2013

 

The Macbeth Tree

Tallahatchie County, Mississippi

Lightning-struck
and prematurely twisted
in the middle of fallow land
with no camouflage
stands a Devil’s bargain,
its knobbed and threadbare
branches reaching up
a plea for deliverance.

Naked and black-burnt
lesson in deformed
humility, with no safe
surface to carve initials
in a heart or rest a weary
back, these witch
branches left to smolder
in an open field,
a silent prayer of witness,
thin as a hag’s finger,
warning the sky.

 

(Crack the Spine, June 2013)
By TOBI COGSWELL

USA