Family Trees

Iris kherington

For Family in all its forms.

It starts with blood, the roots grow in darkness
The seedling of a spirit pushing up to the light
Pushing through the soil into consciousness
The tree begins with the first woman in sight.
But it rises out from there, leaves growing,
Branches reaching broadly to embrace the sky,
Love like sunlight, it reaches toward the glowing
It doesn’t question, doesn’t mistrust, doesn’t ask why.
Its roots are dampened by the water of the womb
But it is always fed by the blood of the covenant
It starts out small, growing wherever it has room
Overlapping other trees and branches when it’s meant.
The vines all grow together, the branches twist- inseparable
Leaves all sharing space and light, aged oaks and new spruce shoots
But beneath the soil, in this woodland, old and venerable
A forest of many trees all become one at the roots.

Iris Kherington is a recent graduate of EIU.