They say,
'You know a tree by its fruits.'
And I can't help
but ask,
'What if this tree
you speak of has been hacked
limb by limb by hatchets
cold, and the soil
of the sapling, poisoned,
and its trunk hallowed
by invaders and infested
by contagion, and its fruits
left to fall,
sticky and bruised
on grounds just
as sunken
and depressed?'
What then,
Do you make of a tree and its fruits...