Towers
This is a Sestina, a form of poetry that repeats six words along six stanzas. It's a tricky form to write well, and I hope I did it justice. Though I'm usually not one for repetition in words, I enjoyed working on this poem because it allowed me to move outside my comfort zone of usual rhythm.
I hope everyone who reads enjoys.
Towers
By Keskron
When discontent, I climb the towers
that stand in my backyard. Despite the scratches
scattered 'mongst my arms and maple sap
seeping into my skin, I take refuge in the nests
of a thousand coniferous needles
spreading upward from their roots.
Meddling down below, accompanied by roots
sneakily trying to trip me, I look to the towers
with naïve envy. I itch and burn and scratch
for a taste of being amidst their fleshy sap,
every day enjoying the animals that nursed their nests
throughout the intricate needles.
Crawling like string through a needle,
I worm through the canopy, noting the roots
down below from the eyes of my towering,
viridian fortress. Hearing the scratching
of squirrels on twigs beyond my reach, their nests
built with glue of the ever-flowing sap.
Sometimes my palms caress the sap
without warning, as if they wished to root
themselves within the mahogany nest
of the forest. I wish to build a great tower
of my own, to pursue the pine needles
with the urge to scavenge and scratch
I am an animal, biting and scratching
and howling, searching for my roots
within this kingdom hidden in the towers.
I say to them, "I long to be your sap.
I long to live in needless worry with your needles
as my forever nest."
But I hear from my perch - my nest -
an echo in the branches and thunder in the roots
of the giants giving birth to the needles
and slobbering over me with their sap.
Pensively, I hear the scratching
Voices; I hear an answer from the towers:
"Here us speak, for we are the towers
Of your dreams. Love not the needles
That you envy - find content in your roots."