There’s a dead branch in the cherry tree
I can’t reach that high alone
and so I simply live with it  

I hoped you’d understand
but you cut me off,
pruned me out

That branch. It’s too thick for the lopper.
It’s going to take a pruning saw
to sever  

Yesterday you were in town
I thought about reaching out
for you  

Unseen, a mourning dove cries
I reach out, again,
for you  

Tender leaves hide dead wood
open-armed, green branches reach
for you  

In the canopy, cicadas thrum and drum
92 decibels, almost as loud, today,
as your silence

There’s a dead branch in the cherry tree
I can’t reach that high alone
and so I simply live with it