The Ginkgo Tree

by Linda Marie

01 August 2020

when the sun sets below

and the planet ascends

a fire falls to embers

as earth flares up again

everyday this horizon of light

shines everywhere on all of us

casting a shadow of prophecy

a virus has come to warn us

“pandemics are optional”

it is not some furry bat or rat

the enemy is right in front as us

natural laws have been broken

the earth hurts from deforestation

toxic water tea leaves and air pollution

from sea to shining sea wild life

habitat destruction invites disease

nature born of its own sovereignty

natural world healing can make amends

restoration begins when we see what grew

under ashes bones relics and ruins

a truth bearer of hope and memory

a golden-leaf maidenhair sapling

amid an atomic bomb obliteration

yet alive new shoots new growth

from a Japanese Ginkgo Tree of Life

the golden-leaf maindenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba)

became known in Japan as the “bearer of hope”

after ginkgo shoots appeared amid the

destruction of the atomic bomb.