Poem “The Arboriculturist”

Here is the “The Arboriculturist” – the title poem from my 2010 Chapbook of the same name.  Copies of the chapbook are available on Amazon:

The Arboriculturist

by Michael Minassian

THE ARBORICULTURIST

 
Wanting shade
I made a tree;

first, an old step
ladder, wooden
with one missing slat.

For leaves, I took
pages of books
I found discarded
next to the washing machine.

Pictures from magazines
stood for blossoms;
a torn photograph
I forgot to burn
hung like ripened fruit.

But what shall I use
for roots to anchor
my surrogate sapling
this artifice of bark,
sap, and heartwood?

Thanks for looking!

“I’ll call for pen and ink and write my mind.”
–William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part I, Act V Scene iii