Thin, dark, crusted nails,

Gnarled, craney, pointed fingers

Pointing at you slowly forming

“Come hither, come hither” motions.

Grabbing, seething, stretching hands

Enclose, clawing at you to come closer, closer.

Long, thin, arched wrists twist and turn and bind to

join large broad sturdy arms connecting

to the paralysed trunk, steady, steady,

roaming down, deep imbedded in the soil

burst the roots

ever stretching

ever expanding

ever-lasting,

rooted.

12 March 2010