Orchard

To bud life at the root,
you must cut off the dead.
Slice through the heart of
what is no longer growing.
Trap the energy in the
fingerlings that reach up
and out to portals that
are waiting for new, green
sprouts. Blooms buried
so deep the only way
to coax them out is a
violent removal. A funeral
for what may once have
flourished, but now,
funnels water towards
dead things.