I Would Let You Live


by Peter Gallaher

Street lining trees I speak to you

Prisoners of a measured plan

Your limbs lopped off to a certain height

Roots blocked by sidewalks and sewer pipes

I have seen your ancestors on the other side

The sacred oaks and the mystic yews

Wild in the fields mighty in the woods

Bare limbs dark against the sky

Upthrown in triumph and agony

Leaf free frozen black forever in my mind

Ancient prayer nets over church roofs

Rough formed grace catching light and cloud

I have seen a forest of such trees in one place

And nothing but the bare hills and bogs in

Another cliffs dropping into the sea straight sheer

Winds whipping round a crystal mountain

Rocks just off the coasts like serpents lurking

And the loneliness of fierce night falling

I would take you there if I could so

I would leave you there then among

Black ravens above crumbling towers

Angels of an older age seeing Christ

In every eye that looks on them

There I would set you free

Free you from your duty to be pretty

There I would let you live your will to be

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