“Echo Discusses Desire with the Trees” by Leila Chatti | Blackbird v20n2

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Echo Discusses Desire with the Trees

Surely you covet
things beyond your reach. I see
how you pivot toward the sun’s
blithe face, compete like schoolgirls
for its gaze.

Even your roots, insatiable.
Your foundation: a snarl
of pushy tongues.

But you stand around like gossips and view me
hostile. You shiver
as I pass, refuse me refuge.

Of course I wanted
what was denied to me, of course
I withered from its lack—

My need offends you
in its clarity. Even now, you yearn for any
wink of sun through the haze—

and the clouds themselves,
swollen with rain.