“There Is a Microcosm in a Tree”

For my final poem for Earth Day, I give you a sonnet reflecting on trees. Come back tomorrow for my old series on the Green Man.

There is a microcosm in a tree.
The universe is bound inside a nut.
Instead of stars, her branches are filled with leaves.
Her wandering roots make open ways once shut.
Her bark is home to a million little lives,
Some we can see, but some beyond our sight.
Birds make homes in her branches; They prize
The stable nature of her humble fight.
And in her roots, more creatures make their home.
A fungal netword taught them all to talk,
And helps them send some food right through the loam.
A hidden world exists from stem to stalk.
And yet this is not all there is to see.
This is not all that makes a tree a tree.