Block

No u-turn
at Almost

from there
a noiseless giant
poised over me

it's usually the case that
I enclose this tree
or it subsumes me

but I am intent
on stasis
to see how tall

he is

what helmet he wears
where the bracers sit

to read the riot of tattoos
on his branches

to scold his leafy lips
to allow me to speak

his notched mouth
to gape centuries

his laces to buttress
his soles to root
his foot
stomping in the mineral rain
as the years see him grow
immense.