BONSAI
My seed was healthy
and my soil fertile,
but, as soon as I shot forth,
I was quickly picked up
and placed on a naked rock,
and, as if that wasn’t enough,
my trunk was twisted,
my branches clipped,
my roots systematically cut…
till my juices almost dried
and I grew shrivelled and crooked
according to some cruel design
- a grotesquely pretty pygmy
instead of a mighty pine.
Perched on mere stones,
under constant attack
of bites and blows,
I’m a stunted cripple
fighting for dear life,
and nobody knows;
no one understands
that my body looks mature
but I’m still really
just a starved infant.