i w a s t h e r e
when little 7 year-old jacob andrews
looked up to the esteemed, autumn sky
painted blue on a canvas
of the harvested earth
the sun a golden flame shimmering
with waves of red and orange
the emerald grass, blades cutting through
the cracks of the ancient design
the trees, mahogany tall and thick in their splendor
speaking in their ancient tongue
whispering fictitious tales to each other
he smiled at his old grandpa-pa
with his little lit-up 7 year-old piercing blue eyes
that made even the damnedest souls
dance in spiritual galore
he smiled back with that half-smile
his old soul dancing in birth
and decay
they stood on solid ground
on the green grass that stretched
for miles on an empty field
the blades of grass weaving and waving
in patterns of puzzles: unsolved
discovering un-discovery
i w a s t h e r e
when little jacob andrews and his
old grandpa-pa stood among
the old trees just listening
they got down on their knees
and began to dig deep
little jacob andrews held in
his tiny hand a red acorn
and dropped it in the hole
planting a seed of discovery
i w a s t h e r e
when little jacob andrews
watched the little red oak tree grow into
something not-so-little
something tremendous and alien
a monster of beauty in form
the branches like arms stretching
towards heaven
he saw his face in that tree
his aspirations, the branches
his heart, the roots
his soul, the autumn leaves
he watched those leaves for many moons
following the reddish-orange fires spread
and float all around the fields
the earth pulling them back towards her
back to the womb from where they came,
their gravestones will read
he caught one in mid-drift making a wish,
his eyes piercing into the decaying beauty:
the veins were like a map of the living
and the dead,
the wind was like a compass
for the souls
i w a s t h e r e
as the tree stood taller than
any tree for miles
in the fall as the furry brown squirrels
stole the red acorns and collected
them for the approaching winter
in the winter, when the white snow
buried the thick, tall oak
in a blanket of crystalline white
making it look nothing extraordinary
just ordinary like every
snow-covered tree
in the spring when the hummingbird
discovered the tree and when the
dandelion seed heads sprouted
up around it,
when jacob andrews pulled
one from the ground and blew on it
watching the cotton-like fluff
spread the seeds of dandelion snow
near the big hill in the backyard
that overlooks the little lake
with a small, forested island in it
and a month later when
the dandelions bloomed,
jacob andrews uprooted one,
twisting the stem around his finger
pinching the flower with his thumb
and sang momma had a baby and its
head popped off and laughed
as the flower was de-headed by his
prepubescent humor
and when his grandpa-pa
yelled at him for uprooting
the dandelions because they were
mother nature’s reminder of
the beautiful mundane things this
world has to offer
and in the summer jacob andrews
wanted to explore the forested island
so old grandpa-pa
and jacob andrews went on a little
hike carrying wood up that
dandelion-covered hill like jesus christ
carried his cross up mount calvary
they carried it to that little lake
as little old grandpa-pa was heaving,
his joints aching, his gray hair balding,
with the little life in him,
he wanted to explore with jacob andrews
his brow was dripping with sweat
as he pounded and hammered away
starting a bridge
he stopped, looking at his
grandson square in the eyes
piercing blue into piercing
blue, and he told him that
they were selling 3/4ths of the land
that their home was to become
a graveyard
i w a s t h e r e
when jacob andrews threw a fit
and when grandpa-pa smacked
him in the face
and kissed him where he smacked him
saying, “son, graves are homes for
our bodies, and bodies are vessels
for our souls…”
his voice was calm and collect
almost like a song in tune
with the world at this moment
as the sun was spotlighting him
he continued
“sometimes the world brings
gray clouds that turn to thunderstorms
and if you look at the world with gray eyes,
you will only see it in
shades of gray and you’ll never
see the rainbow in the thunderstorm
because son, sometimes the rain
brings on the blooming”
i w a s t h e r e
when grandpa-pa, got up
leaving his work unfinished
and walked over to the tree
kneeling beside it
whispering to it
with his last breath
i w a s t h e r e
when the ancestors and brothers
of the oak tree were dug up
and sacrificed
when the grass become not
just grass but “hair of graves”
and when that oak tree became
haunted with ghosts and lonely,
somber melodies hummed in the wind
i w a s t h e r e
when that unfinished bridge
became broken from years
of decay and rotting wood
when jacob andrews’s grandson
jacob andrew the III discovered the
lake, and the tree, and the grass,
and the dandelion
the tree housed many ghosts
that night, as jacob andrews the
I listened to it
but he, magnificent oak,
wasn’t screaming
wasn’t crying
he was laughing
and when jacob andrews
sat down against the tree
he watched it dance naked
under the harvest moon,
stripping red yellow and orange
he listened to him speak old-wives
tales about the dead
and even though jacob andrews
gray hair was sprouting out
of their grave and his eyes cold and
dead, they were still piercing
blue sapphires painting pictures
of a well-lived life
he whispered to the tree
like his grandpa-pa with his last
breath and a leaf unattached itself
like a detached soul soaring through
the stars and heavens and
i w a s t h e r e
he was buried at the base of the tree
his gravestone read
back to the womb from where he came
jacob andrews the III grew older,
like the tree,
his body ancient
and the graveyard became
over-crowded
and lively with death
they cut down the old oak tree
and jacob andrews the III and
his grandson bought the wood
i w a s t h e r e
when they carried the
wood stained with memories
over the hill to the lake
and built the bridge
that carried them to the other side
discovering un-discovery
