The branches and branches they climbed and climbed 

didn't have reason to say they were sorry 

nor explain what they dreamed 

(would you have broken them in if they had told you?)

they just had to survive and survive 

a half decade for the ax to sink in 

(did you believe it would outlast you?)

it kept stabbing the arteries of the mind, the heart, the house, the snake, the mistakes 

the branches they have nowhere to climb 

so they only make their way upward to the holes of tattered cosmos 

(would you stop them if you thought they would stay alive?)