(Eucalyptus deglupta)

•••
For Dick
•••

Of course, it would be rainbow
on these islands where rainbows
abound,

vertical bands of peeling bark
stripped away, down to the essence
of eucalyptus,

visible from your hospital window
after the collapse, the vanishing,
the reappearing.

We watched the tree; I watched you
to see how much in the stripping
might return,

if Humpty Dumpty could be made
whole again. And you were made
more brilliant

in the peeling away, tougher than
either of us thought possible,
yet so lovely,

standing strong, all the colors
amassed in a long lifetime
exposed,

laid bare under the hottest sun,
under the most persistent,
pelting rain.