Albino Redwood Sapling

Ghost treelet, filigree of ivory needles interlaced with your parent’s green, like baby fingers through mine; shade-lover, I see how you hide in the understory. Your pale head would scorch above the canopy.

Self-effacing does not decribe you: you are the sacrifice, you suck heavy metals from poisoned soil, sequester them in your creamy foliage. You feed parasitic from your parent's root. You grow stunted among towering siblings. All the other trees whisper and rustle:

what it is to be different, you who protect their offpsring from contamination, you, streak of white in deep shade, swan feather in a parrot’s breast, lesson in the unexpected, sermon on surprise.

Books Available
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside