Sleeping Man Under Oak Tree: A Self Portrait

By John Grey

PROMPT—Peace ...

Every moment

is another green leaf,

a surprise

at how much life

there is in you

as a surge of wind

ruffles your foliage

from shadow to sky.

Your trunk

is tightly coiled memories

but your branches

are up to the moment,

flailing at the edges,

rife with birdlife.

flashing sunlight

like sparklers

in a child’s hand.

There’s a thousand like you

on the side of this hill,

but one at a time

is a forest in itself.

Your roots

are earth’s roots.

Your bark

is the skin of all life.

I rest beneath you,

drift into sleep,

legs stretched out

into your grass disciples,

my head

on the pillow that chose me.

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John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, and his writing has recently been published in Shift, River And South and Flights. His latest books are Bittersweet, Subject Matters and Between Two Fires. He has work forthcoming in Rush, Writer’s Block and Trampoline. John writes from Lincoln, RI.