The wizard tree
part one

On the day the prince rode out from the kingdom, every child grew a year older, so clear was the sunlight that it etched them more firmly into this world from the nothing out of which they had been carved. It was that kind of day.

The prince rode for days, thinking little, from the hills outside the kingdom down a long slope to the banks of the Very Ugly Sea. He paused there in the breathless beauty. He could see mist coming off the water, mist off the satisfied skin of a seal, mist of his own breath. He carved a letter into the sand which was better than any letter I have sent you, but was addressed to no one.

On the fifth day the prince reached the forest, where he was supposed to find the wizard tree. He looked from tree to tree but saw only maple, elm, palm, ombu, and the face of his true love. He pushed past, looking onward. At last the woodchuck, tired of watching this fool prince wander through the forest (and disturbed that he was crushing many edible things underfoot), asked him, "What do you seek?"

"I seek the wizard tree."

"And what is your question for it? I would be glad to deliver it, and bring back the answer, and then you won't have to walk so much. I can see that you are tired."

"I am tired," the prince replied. "But I cannot give you my question. If anyone other than me asks it, it will no longer be my question, and the answer thus may be true for you, but almost certainly won't be for me."

"And are you sure you want to ask this question?" asked the woodchuck. "What if you don't like the answer?"

"If the answer is true, and I understand that the wizard tree always speaks the truth, then it matters not whether the answer I receive is one I like or not."

"Then I will take you there," said the woodchuck.

They went into a part of the forest so thick that it became hard to find the spaces between the trees. Often the prince had to find his way through what seemed to be a labyrinth of wood, walls of tree-trunk growing together. At the heart of the labyrinth they descended into a hole, the woodchuck lighting up his eyes and shining them forward so the prince could see. "A little trick I learned in the navy," said the woodchuck. They emerged from the hole on the banks of a stream. They hopped into a rowboat. The woodchuck paddled with his tail. "A little trick I learned in the Marines," he said.

They disembarked on the other side and followed a path. As the path petered out at the top of the treeline, the woodchuck said, "From here you go alone. You said it was just your question."

"But where is the wizard tree?"

"There will be only one tree up there, only one tree that grows above the tree line. You will know it."

"And how will I get back from here?"

"The way back is always shorter," said the woodchuck. "You haven't noticed that before?" He disappeared into the forest.

The prince walked up the rock face. The slope was steep and he couldn't see the summit for the brightness of the sun. He kept climbing. At last he could see the summit just above him. But he saw no tree. "Damn woodchuck," he thought, "There's no tree above the tree line. He's probably laughing his way home on that little boat, which won't be there when I need to get back across the stream."

He reached the top just then, and the sun was so strong and the air so thin that his shadow turned red, began to burn the things it touched. He sat on a rock and listened to his heart pound. No tree in sight. Just the land in all its beauty stretched about before him, shining as if purposefully showing off a new outfit. The land he had come here to kill with a question.
posted by Adam at 11:51 PM [edit]

Summons

I heard you saved a child on Mars
by walking on eggshells through space
'til you brought him back in a bundle.

I heard you saved a child in Atlantis
just as the markets were crashing
and the deep blue sea coming in from everywhere.

I heard you saved a child from sleep
looking down from the great height of consciousness
just to see her wake up.

I heard you died saving a child
in a world that has already gone
leaving the child alive but without home.

I heard you died. Now come back
to life. There is a child here on Earth
who still needs you.

posted by Adam at 11:20 PM [edit]

Bowling with Chileans

The pins come down and wow, they are over an ocean,
they stretch from desert to melting glacier.

It doesn't matter that you don't know who shares
her bed--you won't know tomorrow either.

There is something violent at the throat of the night,
in its secret sounds, drowned out by friends and french fries.

We are bowling for our lives. This I know. Our scores don't count
but if we stop, we stop forever. The detective buying soda tips his hat,

He knows I know that I am lost. That outside the revving motors are waiting
for me alone to come out--my bowling shoes left absentmindedly on my feet--

and face the full teeth of their anger: motor oil, menace, disgust, heartache.
The power of the imagination to turn against itself. The sad smell of red wine.

Bowling with Chileans, mixing averages into physics and crushing distance
into the size of a wire, you can forget for a second that the night itself is a liar,

That your room is drunk, your sweater cold, your love is gone, and the detective
with the soda has betrayed you. Run to the south, my friend, and see how far you get

Before you catch up with you, and tear you, and leave yourself tattered on the lane.
posted by Adam at 1:48 AM [edit]