Dendrochronology

Kristen Lenea Ryberg

Dendrochronology
            ~scientific method of tree ring dating and climate analysis

poplar’s underground birth     
roots to truth of its god
quick-pithed and straight.

oak, the historian, bark-ridged 
in hieroglyphs of remembrance.

begin in the middle of a stump
count each dark ring, 
as a year of small tasks 
of recorded contentment, 
in growing your own home—
pigmenting each season.

kiss the altar of Methuselah, 
the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine 
of 5,000 years.

outside the night window
winter maple casts lacework    
on your torso  
  
you,
are not naked
covered, in silver-shine.     

moon cools worries
wakes you to knowing 
how to glow in darkness
when to stand in shadow     
halfway, a quarter, or hidden
unseen
not empty.