gaze
KATHERINE V, WILLIS

We accept you  
As living sentient beings 
Only when we gaze on you-- 
As an inhabited body: 
The metaphor: 
Your branches--arms 
Your trunk--a torso 
Your leaves chattering  
Susurrus susurrus  

Your body belongs to us  
Attiring with seasons 
Dis-attiring  
You hold power over us 
Like the weeping willow  
Pensive, wet at the river’s edge 
Where narcissus drowned

We name your ugly cousin 
Sycamore with her psoriatic peeling skin 
Your seductive sister 
Sweet maple dripping on our pancakes  
And female ginkgo-- 
Full of soft fleshy stinking seeds  
We love you the best.

Ebony, we won’t forget ebony 
Ancient ebony,   
Black root of earth ebony  
We know you, Trees. 
We own you, Trees.

ENGAGE!  |  e n v i r o n m e n ta l  j u st i c e 2

P O E T R Y



occupy
KATHERINE V. WILLIS

3 VO L .  3,  I S S U E  1

The logging trucks pitch and roll

Along the narrow rural roads 

To buzzing sawmills,

To Carolina furniture factories,

To those snippety smug euro homes 

Consuming warm red 

Cool white oak planking 

Under foot. 

You are like the lungs of the earth, 

You are a simile converting 

The sun into hope

We trust you will 

Baptize us in oxygen.

K A T H E R I N E  V.  W I L L I S