As per your request

I want to know the trees

Powerpoint slides – a novelty
in my high school – taught me the
trees. Fifty of them: Common name,
Scientific name, Principal identifying
characteristics. Populus tremuloides, Little-
leaf Linden, Weeping White birch,
Acer negundo. Amateur pronunciations

of Latin drew snickers at times: Salix
matsudana, Catalpa bignoides. I’ve
forgotten most of what I learned. Now

I want to start again, but this
time not just fifty, this time all of
them. Starting with the leaves, and
moving down. From the trunk down,
without looking up: I know you.
Eventually, just from the roots. The

reaching I recognize, the suction I
feel unmistakably: I know you.

Then from trees to birds: Harrier,
Cooper’s hawk, blackbirds. A chasing
game? Or life and death? Mimus
polyglottis: So you know him also?

A feather, this flutter: I know you.
And from there: roads, books, oceans,
fields, Cracks, waves, flashes: I know you.

I want to sense your footstep,
hear your feeling: I know you.