The Best Branches

Smooth curves, elegant grain
where bark has peeled away,
to be sawn into perfect lengths.
I know what I intend for all of you.

A woman passed as I was carrying
a long, twisting fallen branch
and asked: Is that for an art project?
No, I said. I have a sauna at home.

Tonight though I see she was right
to guess at the aesthetics. A branch
burns all the better if it’s beautiful.
Its sun-colored locks flare up,

straining sunward in rippling light
until the lovely shape of wood
decomposes into coals that are
differently bright, far more ephemeral.

Sibelan Forrester
Swarthmore