trees ascend faster fuller
                                  fresher freer
than thoughts,
                  decay slower,
leaves dying
            in a painterly blaze
of fullblown color,
                           thoughts colorless
at birth and death,
                           falling as they rise,
the squalor of consciousness
                                    in their conception,
trees conceived
                   in unconscious earth
sturdier than time,
                           upright in eternity.

ascending until
                   there is no more ascending,
attended by the sky,
                            measureless clouds
the halo on their nakedness,
                                    unashamed
before the angels,
                      enjoyed by the gods.
thoughts abject
                   before them,
bowing to their pride,
                              fading into flimsiness
as trees burst into fullness,
                                     thoughts parochial
and sapless,
                trees universal with inexhaustible sap.

blurred in the text
                           of time,
thoughts the waste matter
                                     of wonder,
trees wonder incarnate,
                           everlasting.