Tree House Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

Serene in my tree house
With my tart and my tea
I look out at the living green
Of lacy bamboo leaves
Preserving the illusion of summer.

Snow is falling in my home town
But here on this island, near the sea,
An indeterminate bird still sings
Hidden in the cedars that scent the air.

And so, here, finally, I can breathe.
I can cease to worry about pressing uncertainties.
I can look at my husband and smile
As he makes our precarious perch sway
With every shift of his weight.

It is a tiny thrill, to sip our tea
As we tilt ever so slightly
Downwards on the side of this mountain,
Certainly safe and yet not stable.

We don't so much talk as nod
As we agree on the beauty we see
But also fall into sync
About what we are both thinking.

It has been a long ugly summer
Stretched on endlessly by Covid
And the damage it has wrought
To our confidence in who we are
And what is to come for us.

But our son has risen like the phoenix he is
From yet another conflagration
With an even more ambitious vision
And we sit in witness of his potent potential

As proud and powerless as parents.