What tree is this
that stands so tall, so broad?
More than one century in age, I’m told.
It creeps, tangles thick across the earth
like some heathen’s diabolical tentacles.
If these be strangler roots
then what poor enraptured creatures lie beneath,
choked by weight and lack of light.
Fenced off as if to warn,
do not climb or come near.
Beware of danger,
capture or consumption
by multiple orgasmic trunks.
Solitary owl sits sentry, hidden within its leaves,
guarding who from what we do not know.
Gawk and wonder, but this be all,
lest you learn its secrets
or become one.

Written for Open Link Night at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today/tonight Bjorn is hosting from Stockholm Sweden and invites us to post a poem of our choice, or a poem responding to an optional prompt he provides.

Photos are from yesterday’s walking tour of Balboa Park in San Diego. This tree is the largest tree in California. It’s a strangler fig, one of 900 species in the genus Ficus. It has a complex root system which includes large sculptural buttress roots growing above ground for support; smaller roots growing near the soil, providing oxygen and nutrients; and aerial roots which hang down from branches. I was just mesmerized by this tree and most especially its roots which really look like snakes or tentacles of living creatures… to me they could be something out of a horror show and seemed life-like! And yes, there was a solitary owl hiding within the leaves.