banyan tree
May 26, 2024
my brother posted last night
on the family group
our friend passed
felled by a storm that
withered trunks
could not bear
and down came
all the swings
we had made
tying barnacles into knots
higher than the one
the year before
the sky closer
than the year before
no photos exist
of that tree
our friend now
exists only in
our memories
and in the stories
we tell
the legends we create
of what remains
my brother mentioned
that our dogs
have been howling
all night
the ghosts our friend
harboured
are now
refugees
