The Magnolia (or, Loveliness)

Your wide leaves were your ruff

Your plate-sized, milky blooms your crowning glory

Your branches tall and far-reaching

Years of work and determination and splendor on display

Until they came

with their saws and ropes and boots and thick blue jeans

Climbing your core

Tearing you—quite literally—limb from limb

Returning to your shocked frame after an initial trim

to finish the job.

You remain there, naked and violated

A fraction of what you once were

But see...

The undulating curve of your twin trunks

gently winding toward sky

Stubs of branches pointing their way toward future

Soft gray lichen dappling your dark skin—

a canvas of monochrome

previously hidden by old glory

revealed now in its own.

Rest. Breathe.

Recover.

Find the life still hidden inside you.

Be healed, friend.