Previously appeared in the Adirondack Trust Company Festival of Young Artists.

we were born to mother. 
you rose first, from white crested waves
knotted branches unraveling
waxen leaves fanning out
                                                                                                     above fertile lands.
you ruled for eons in your meditative rumination
                    watched my minuscule figure emerge from swollen hills, smiled as mother painted my 
skin smooth and curving
                tapering into thin spools
                                  of wiry hair she wove from her
                                                                                                vine draped loom,
as she breathed into me voice,
resonating chords curling
                                                                                           with the unfurling fists
I used to explore your arching ridged walls, letting the deep etched lines
                                                                                                          gently scrape my sun sensitive palms
seeking refuge under your
                                                   viridescent canopy spheres.
yet our paths
                            diverged and
                                                       I morphed
                             into a plague, lunatic ignorance deluging
                                                                                                                    from my infernal countenance.
you writhed under my arsonist fingers
an errant child razing your woods
                                                              indulging in smoke incense smeared with variegated
                                                                                                                                                                  betrayal.
you were a gift we watered
                                                        with a rolling sea of blaze.
serpentine columns surging
                                                        from stinging flames
between the hardy trunks once sturdy
                                                                                                                                                    —disintegrating.
you became ashen seeds unplanted, staining mercurial skies orange-gray. stolen 
              souls
                            charred skeletons of bark
                                                                                   and bone.
Do you still hear it?

flicker of leaves
                                                 perpetual trickle of dew drops and birdsong.
mother nature’s
                              hymn.
before the wails of your slain saplings
                                                                       rose from burnished flames.
before your magnificent bodies
                                                                        were hollowed by blazing venom,
                                                                                                                                     ancient
                                                                                                limbs shattering into
                                                               forgotten shards.
before the mournful splatters
                                                        of smoldering blood
I poured into the blackened earth,
                                                         my laughter carved
                                                                                                           tuneless.
mother’s song has changed.
                                                    all we hear now
is her last lullaby.

~~~~~~~
Inspired by the artwork:
Donald Holden, Forest Fire X, 2001.
Smithsonian American Art Museum

Allison Wu is a high school student from upstate New York. Her work has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, Princeton University, and Hollins University and can be found in West Trestle Review, The Rising Phoenix Review, Eunoia Review, and more.