BRISTLECONE PINE


If wind were wood it might resemble this
fragility and strength, old bark bleeding amber.
Its living parts grow on away from the dead
as we do in our lesser lives. Endurance,
yes, but also a scarred and twisted beauty
we know the way we know our own carved hearts.

David Mason's recent work can be found in Poetry, Hudson Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and various other journals. He has two new books forthcoming in 2014—a collection of shorter poems and a verse novella for readers aged 8 to 80.