sapling

as a sapling, I was a weakling indeed,
troubled by bark that withered under
excessive sunlight or unannounced rain.

Winds tore me twisted, curvaceous
without the legitimating prefecture of old age,
still undreamed.

This made grow in me, in the passing of years,
a small furnace of revenge
that spurted crude pig iron accoutrements.

Far away from the prosecutor's serenity
I wished to have had,
as a sapling planted on a temple's entrance,
lording it among the fogs of the future
and the vestiges of a past endlessly reworked.

Who does not want to look good in shorts and reeboks?
In a squeaky clean panorama, of course,
strong, well defined calves and all that.

As a sapling I dreamed I'd become an oak,
formidable, unassailable authority
bestowed unto me.
Natural rights would undisputedly flow towards me.
The reality has been far otherwise.

One thing has not changed though, the unsheperded
desire to find the ghosts at dawn,
jetlagged, bleary-eyed, haggard and hazardous,
but coffee franchises have neutered the tales form overseas.

I am still a sapling, anyway, but a little bit more tired.