Have You Ever Seen A Tree? Poem by Diana van den Berg

Have you ever seen a tree?

Yes, that is exactly what I said.
You have? Of course?
So,

what colour was the trunk?
Brown?
Grey?
Yellow-green?

And
how many lights and shades
of brown
or grey
or yellow-green
or other splendour on God’s palette
did the trunk
parade?

I haven’t started
on her limbs
or her natural decorations
or her shape
or her dignity
or her mood
or her wind dance
... yet.

I say again,
Have you ever seen a tree?

(11 February 2011)