There is a white tree

in the woods

near my home.

Its skeletal bark

a stark contrast

amongst the

near blackness

surrounding it.

Its light leaves

screaming out

against the silence

of dark pine needles

all around it.

It rises stubbornly

reaching bone-white

fingers toward the

sky…palms upward

full of an offering

of peridot…

kissed each night

by moon and stars.