The prompt was “Trees.” If you know how to format line breaks instead of paragraph breaks, please let me know.

Timber

I have heard that wood will warm you many times,

When you chop it,

Split it,

Burn it and cook-

I find a standing dead.

It’s no good taking the fallen,

The wet gets in so quick around here.

Leave those for the beetles.

Abraham Lincoln said

If he had six hours to fell a tree,

He would spend four

Sharpening his axe.

My father once asked me

“Why not use a chainsaw?”

I could let another man

fuck my wife.

Sweat slick and

Sore muscles

Never felt so good.

Life shorn of its artifice.