Look Into My Lights
By Joseph Coelho
Look into my lights.
My memory buds
with a song of sunlight,
a stretching of roots.
A shoot-tip sigh
as I part the earthen sky.
Look into my lights.
My memory branches
into arctic cold nights,
and a kaleidoscope of days.
I am born in every forest’s heart,
a guiding light out of the dark.
Look into my lights.
My memory creaks
into a lightning strike
cracking the sky.
I break from the ground,
the stars are my crown.
Look into my lights.
My sap of memory rings
with a grandma by candlelight
slipping chestnuts into stockings,
as children nest in my scent
with dreams full of presents.
Look into my lights.
Now I’m a Christmas tree.
Now I’m a spruce.
A pine.
A palm.
A cedar.
An acer.
An oak.
A baobab.
I am within all trees.
You have sat beneath my branches.
Look into my lights.
See the heartwood within me
The spirit of every delight.
The spirit of every tree, everywhere.
Whenever humanity sits and shares.
Wherever there is love and care.
Look into my lights –
see me there.