we felled it,
you and i,
the great tree between us.
my hands were on
one side of the long blade,
yours at the other.
our back and forth bickerings
our slow draws of indifference
served as lumberjack cuts
through the trunk
of a marriage
grown weak
with rot and decay.
the leaves had all fallen away,
no fruit had ever come of it.
and when we could no longer grow
we died.
but we could not stomach
a death in stasis
so we had to destroy.
slicing through our years together
with a jagged-toothed solemnity
inch by inch
until we toppled
and the impact reverberated
through the forest
of all we had known.
