#Poetry - Endless Branches from Cloudy Days, Still Nights

ENDLESS BRANCHES
CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS
AUSTIN DAVIS

Endless Branches
 
Pray with me
for another silent night
and we’ll find those Polaroids
we forgot were ever taken.
 
The suburbs are alive
with the glow from candles
born in the absence
of November’s wind
 
So let us lay with our backs
against the hardwood, staring
up into our silver tree’s
endless branches. She’s really
a genius, this tree of ours.
 
Her insides are an aquarium
of flushed fish
and her golden hat
could only hide the hair
of Mona Lisa.
 
I feel bad that we’ve had
to borrow her single blanket,
but the red and green stars
won’t wait for us to wink.
 
They can’t tell us the time
and they won’t remind us
that we have a doctor’s
appointment at three.
 
They don’t nod subtly
at the snow lined windows
and I’ve yet to hear a peep
from them about how
the real world won’t slow
for the kettle to make its tea.
 
They just keep on flickering,
protecting our tree’s skin
and coloring her skinny bones.
 
Close your eyes
until you see
the watercolor pinks.
 
Turn your
cheek to my chest
and find a home
in the patterns
on my sweater
 
and like matches born
on a December night,
I’ll warm your hands
but never burn down.

BUY CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS