visiting a friend
there for the yachts
I never saw, the sea
was near but somehow
belonged to the Navy
and the wealthy. Ah well,
things do. But there
I saw a tree, no names
please, tall enough
to dwarf his house,
dark like locust, and this
seemed a friend from home.
No, I’m not a good traveler,
yes, I’m always on the way home.

2.
But the tree
stays in mind
strange emblem
of a seaside town,
school for sailors
and their tailors,
we are who we are
by the way we dress,
open the buttons
one by one.

3.
And the tree had none
of course, what am I
doing here, drive to Baltimore
where at least there are streets,
department stores, race tracks
all kinds of things I don’t’ need
and don’t want but love
to see all round me, Why am I
talking about me again,
this is supposed to be tree.

4.
Once I was lonely
once I was free,
men all around
and no woman for me.
You think it’s me
moaning on again but no,
it was the tree said that.
And for forty years I’ve wondered
what is a wife for a tree?

5.
I asked the preacher
you can guess what he said: as man cometh forth from woman
so cometh tree from the earth,
yea, earth is mother and bride.

6.
So what has all this to do
with Annapolis,
and who was this Anna
the city borrows the name of.
Not sure. Ask yourself
the next time you’re lonely,
is it the place’s fault,
are there places where
it is not good to be alone.

23 October 2022