Quiver Tree Poem by Elna Nel

I found loneliness
in winter's aloe sun
reaching and listening
to the beat of the bark
with arms like brittle
arrows and purple
beams of light
like never before
behind a quiver tree

like voices
blowing free
through this lonely
tree's bursting bark
and blowing over some
of the many roads
of my brown mind
it will not show
its wounds to me

while crated minds
lie in wait to see
if purple arms
with broken palms
could be touching
heaven's heart
like seldom in a tree
or a man was found
lonely to the front