Cypress Poem by Kevin Kiely

Cypress—
you stand proud
giraffe-pride

and with disdain
if you had eyes
your limbs

aloft towards the Roman blue sky
and your dome of hair
makes you human, seasonal

with tufts of grey
you are vain cypress
with a green sneer

do you really raise clouds
with those streaked limbs and branches
do you shake the banner of swallows

a fluttering black dragon net
and healing bird music
with expansive grandeur

above the city
but you, cypress are unimpressed
since we need each other

amidst the enduring magnificence
the possibility that all is mystery
let us share the spoils, many ruins

have ghosts that long for restoration
trees flourish eternally where the poet
walked you stand in line and adorn

I sing of you and make your name
while you grant me song
we are friends in spectacle

read in cycles of history
and the sun’s corona
least in the fields of
emotional life