texting with the trees

i message, "have you seen the news lately?"
the trees have not. most people don't know this
but their fruits are their eyes 
so trees can only see for a few months
of a year. their vision swells & then fades.
gone as their apples or their stinking ginko nuts
fall to the earth. the non-fruiting trees 
just do not see at all. sadly they don't
usually text back but today they do.
they say, "please please please please."
i wish i knew what they wanted.
whenever i can i try to leave offerings.
roasted squash & poems & sometimes even
a bird feeder to hang from their branches.
lately, they have been hungrier. nothing is enough.
their mouths like pits of spoons. 
i've brought them signed celebrity portraits 
& even a streaming service so they can hear
stories & fall asleep to a myth. 
i know that my friendship
is a little selfish. it is my hope
that one day they will braid me in.
teach me how to plant my feet & turn them
into roots. i have never lived anywhere long.
this is the first year in my adult life that
i have not moved at least once. i envy how
for trees their lives are a place. the details
they must know about the small creatures 
& the large ones. their conversations
between the sky & the soil. sending messages 
from lover to lover. i'm sure there are 
hard days too. days where i text them
& they just wish they could run away & 
not be so sewn into everyone & our wars
& our fires & the ways we eat each other. 
i have run away so much. burning driveways.
a city full of blinking fruit. the truth is
we are just like the trees. peaches in our hands
wandering along the side of the highway.
i tell the trees, "i am scared so much lately."
they reply, "the worms, the blue birds, &
even the tailless squirrel."