JANE (2056)
On a day unlike today, with a sky-blackened gray
stands an oak with branches hovering like hands
holding the storm away. This tree grows now
on John’s Island in South Carolina. There has been folk
who have said this oak is filled with specters. It’s true.
Yet no one is sure. No one has seen these seraphim—
it has always been simply conjectured. To be set free
from this tree, one would need the Godspeed of an angel.
From the ground, not a sound can be heard, not
from up high, not from a bird. In this grim tree
is a wicked banshee or a welcomed pet to a single eaglet.