Another Poem From My Teenage Years

(This one unpublished, until now).

Everyone in My Group

Everyone in my group but me

Decided to become a tree.

When I would ask them why

They spread their branches to the sky.

But I—-I chose a different path,

One that makes the sun gods laugh.

I climbed a ladder to the stars

And set my lonely camp on Mars.

There I watched the Earth recede

The trees, the sky, the swallowed seas,

The birds, the fish, the wild beasts.

All the most—became the least.

With only haunted space to rule

I let my human soul unspool.

The leaves are rotting in the ground, 

But listen—they don’t make a sound.