i hereby name the tree with the pretty smell by diana elba

i. what you want to hear because poetry can’t be childish if you are twenty years old 

a seventy-eight year old woman wearing white gloves is named elba and today she walked past the tables outside of liz’s asked if i spoke spanish and told me there was a big tree standing where diana stands today years ago and that the little shade giver i was sitting under has the same smell as the old one so it must be her daughter she said one seed must have escaped and then she was born said her own parents had ten escaped seeds ten little kids and that she has had ten heart attacks one heart aching clenching breaking and healing one for each child and obviously one for herself said do you know what keeping busy does to someone she said the same as ten children and then surviving that number she encouraged me to sit under this tree every afternoon and enjoy her smell said it was good for the heart and i think i trust that she knows what is good for the heart 

ii. the first things i wrote without an explanation of what actually happened because elba reminded me of my grandmother and i felt like a child again and children are not in the business of explaining what actually happened even though they would be much better than any of us 

this building was once a tree 

who was once a mother 

and now this building

who in its birthing took away life 

can share a life with her daughter 

diana and elba are sisters 

who do not like to hold hands 

they are ashamed of being different 

from each other and from the world

but unafraid we have named them 

one gives us shade and good smell

the other fills minds and bellies 

i don’t know which i prefer 

buildings can dance if not looking 

trees don’t exist less you do 

sway in the wind little elba 

diana will hold her tongue 

carve your name on old beginnings

begin again when you wish 

i will guard your shade if you’re dancing 

guard your roots if you change your leaves 

i will hold your doors open for you 

so you too can dance summer breeze 

summer solstice i will be longing 

to belong in four empty hands 

wear white gloves to the ball this evening  

and the wind will ask for a dance