Poem inspired by Bob Dylan's "It's alright ma"

Message Folded in a Tree

If dissolution tries to get you down

try to knock down the crown

from off the head of the proud man who’s been lying.

Don’t you forget the apple seed

that johnny planted as a plea

to the country that would sink into the sea from all the taking.

And if there were less callous men

perhaps we could return again

to the time before this bookend full of dying.

So you hear the cricket cry,

or observe the folly of the fly,

try to see what they deny: that there’s still life to be living.

So if you start to lose all hope

look to the sun before you reach for the rope

because there are other ways to cope besides disappearing.

You know, even soil filled with sand

can grow something good with a loving hand

so stay to keep an eye out for the land that you’ve spent your life walking.