Initialize

I don't feel like carving a living tree
is something I'd do to show love. A living rock, sure!
Which would take so much more

It's not that I'm morally opposed to such things. Or if I am,
it's not that I can make that case. It's more

a case of a gesture not occurring to me

except - well, when explained, or pointed out,
it occurs to me. But a thing to appreciate, not
to do. It doesn't occur to me. The most outlandish things

can seem perfectly natural, once you notice
everyone's done them. And you just do them, unthinkingly,
but for some reason I never do. Other people
do, naturally. They seem to have. It
makes sense to me, once pointed out.

For whatever romantic reason, sometimes
you realize you've got a bit of a blind spot
when it comes to traditions, observances
generally known, held, performed - it's not

that you're not romantic. Or I'm
not. I've seen
such tokens carved
into bark and been quite touched,
it is something to see, just

not a natural gesture for me, to take a knife -

Sweet as they are, those carved hearts,

- if it did cross my mind, and I had a knife,
what would I do with all the world
poised on the edge of that blade, in the twist of your name
and mine, with an arithmetic so simple it could only
appear in one shape?

What would it take, to sacrifice

carve you and I into life

for all to see,

in some poor tree