Suppose
Suppose the tree
once leant into the wind
went the other way
against the giving in
the prevailing call to obey
let’s say one wilful day
it shook free
from ages of constraint
and from its deepest roots up
urged itself to bow no more
to bend no more but took
to doing something trees
had never ever done
decide
as if it had a mind to
as if it had a mind
to say why when the wind blows
it so easily sways
so will-less in its strength
it lets whatever wind have its way
suppose the person too
once bent to be the way they are
were of a mind to say
no more no more will I
stand rooted by
but turn
to face the wind
come what
or what winds may
Ray Malone is an artist and writer currently living and working in Berlin, with work published in numerous magazines in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland. This poem is from a series of projects exploring the lyric potential of minimal forms based on various musical and/or literary models.