Suffering

by Jan Wiezorek

This is no new wound—the branch
inside me was struck years ago,
and vines have crushed in,
but as I move closer to see,
there’s a face looking
into me from the tree
heart the way they say
St. Chrysostom spoke,
with a golden mouth
(like tree fruit)—
giving a talk
beyond wounds—
as peace that fruits;
and I don’t know how
to say this out in the woods,
where words mean words—
but his face, direct as light—
with an eye above seven concentric
wrinkles of creation and rest, a chipped
cheek, beard below salty hair—and mouth
instructing me beyond all that my tree suffers.

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Jan Wiezorek's poetry appears, or is forthcoming, in The London Magazine, The Westchester Review, Lucky Jefferson, Loch Raven Review, and The Broadkill Review, among other journals. He taught writing at St. Augustine College, Chicago, and wrote Awesome Art Projects That Spark Super Writing (Scholastic, 2011). Wiezorek received the Poetry Society of Michigan's Spring 2024 Traveling Trophy Award, and he posts at janwiezorek.substack.com.