Up in the apple tree
we watched the leaves the birds
shared our secrets
read countless books
surveilled the world

Bodies balanced
legs wrapped round broad limbs
we turned our eyes sometimes skyward
sometimes to the ground
lived in the present
imagined the future

We fought battles with the fallen apples
but never from the tree
Its arms were sanctuary
a place of peace
its trunk our support
through countless days of summer

My grandmother in her garden
must have known we were there
but wouldn’t disturb us
knew how to give children
room to grow
knew we would make our way down eventually
back into the world of parents and chores,
and home for dinner or bed,
where dreams would take us again to the tree
and a world all our own

Today’s Poetic Earth Month challenge from Tweetspeak Poetry was to write about someone who has influenced our stance toward the natural world. I’m not sure I did quite that, but that’s where this started.