Change of Element

From seahorse to tree
My friend calls me
Having visited recently
And found me changed.

Not ranged and pushed this way
And that, blown by current and whim
Dipping in exigence and pain,
Rising unresisting -

Fragile thin thing as I was,
Riding all their watercourse,
Drowning my way
Through a dark sea.

Now, she said, I am shored,
Transformed -
A rooting thing: a tree
Of stasis, steady in one place

And growing. She said she saw me
Reaching for the sun, branches
Thickening - I had an air of Spring,
I was nearly green, still ripening.

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