Wish Fulfilling Tree … Sophia Naz


Wish Fulfilling Tree

(Sophia Naz)

I dreamed a tree at river’s edge,
evergreen, sweet shade, refuge leafing
through analog skin

Sueño, subtle pollen’s kiss, entwined on limb
fragrant thigh, & I, my lover’s creeper, yet reverie
succumbs, unable to become, wish-fulfilling swelling tree
the fruit of labor pains

Too much, death by paper cuts
close to bone I lean on
stuff of monsoon swings and songs
memory, a tree, unrolling
stone, lost heart-
beats on a vinyl grove

Mother tree, mango breasts
father tree, stern sandal-
wooden fore, head underhand & snake to climb
booty, tree, god framing knee, uncapped vault
tree as everything that’s me
drinking routes, watering
place, the crux, body
bursting  into bud

What of these trampled flowers? What of the fist sized rose
made blood? Tree at crossroads, loggerheads, rushing
rapids, no arbol adentro
safe, harbor or embankment
sharks on the cards, default
falling seasons sound, dominoes murmur, weigh

Lay the Wish Fulfilling Tree, alone, denuded
of drapes like Draupadi would be, were she not
wrapped in smug paternal, *Azadirachta
Indica, what a sham(e). Since when
has a tree been free? Stripped down to teeth
a skeletal sentinel keeps vigil
beckoning butterflies, summoning
immovable doves.

  • Latin name of the neem tree, derived from the Farsi, Azad darakht-é-Hindi

Sophia Naz is an Asian-American author who writes in both Urdu and English. She has been anthologized worldwide, in both print and online journals including Poetry.  She gets amused and amazed by the mother of wonders that is philosophy and loves telling anecdotes that climax too soon.

Read more from Sophia Naz

Read more English poetry

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