REDWOOD/Mahnaz Badihian

 

REDWOOD

Let’s sing our hearts out for

these old trees and whisper our secrets

to the ears of these patient woods

holding the memories of

many Native Americans in this land

with diameters of their heart

 thick as those untold stories

thick as the skin of enslaved women

thick as the skin of immigrants

who worked day and night

for a loaf of bread to eat in silence

 

Let’s sing our hearts out for

these tolerant redwood trees 

that can show us the roots

of many human agonies

 

We’ll have our day

when layer by layer our stories

will be told by these redwoods

planted by Indians, Blacks

and working hands