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Monday, April 6, 2020

Day 6 #Napowrimo - Dragon Tree Writes a Letter to Bosch


This was a fun prompt to write. Today we were instructed to view Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights and write in the viewpoint of one of the inhabitants. I chose the Dragon Tree.

The Dragon Tree: Bosch


Dragon Tree Writes a Letter to Bosch

I am too old to correct what cannot be undone,
but I know you never sat beneath my shade, not
with your lush landscapes, your hair smelling
of rain-soaked land and your privileged feet
that have walked on dew drop grass.

I place my roots not in the garden of Eden,
but in the beige landscapes of fire and heat.
I dig myself between boulders and dust,
my branches, like your fleshy arms, reach up
to touch the vast, blue skies. My fronds

point like fingers at each planet and star.
I’ve never needed rain or paradise. I need
the long days of desert and the company
of wind. You covered me in grapevines
and painted me next to an orchard of mandarin.

I am the alpha, the lone one; I move time.
This lush portrait, a form of betrayal.
I am forever stilled in your image,
my shade cast upon your Adam and your Eve,

their nakedness a different kind of bark,
and the bird eating frog, cat eating lizard,
fish reading book, the three headed bird;
all of them a chaos that cannot be governed,

not with your foolish mouth, or your arrogant
hand. Your brush is not god’s tool, your paint
not your holy book or daily worship; you stand
as if you created them from the clay,

but I am the life tree, I am the reason you breathe.

6 comments:

  1. This is beautiful! So well said.

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  2. Wow! Way to put Bosch in his place. It was a challenge for me to find something to work with in all the chaos and debauchery. Well said!
    P.S. Love the Puget Sound area. I lived in Tacoma for a while and come back as often as I can.

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  3. Love the ending. And yes, you certainly did put Bosch in his place. Agreed! Well done, Britt.

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