The New Manifestation

This moment of creation leaves me shaken
For I am now a tree
My limbs reach out toward a tessellating sea of stars
My roots bifurcate deep into the damp earth

This moment of creation leaves me quivering
For what has now become of my human form?
It has gone and been replaced by this mighty trunk of wood
Living growing flesh spreading in concentric rings from my core

Where have my legs gone?
What of my arms?
I have no eyes nor ears nor head at all!
(but I kept my beating heart)

I am the leaves 
I am the flowers
I am the bark
I am browns and reds and dark greens
but no longer am I a living human being

I fell down long ago on a distant planet
Back then, I was a man
Now I am a tree of grand proportions
This I cannot understand

What did I do to deserve this rebirth? 
Was my past a life of strife?
I must have done something wrong
To be born into this new life


There are all sorts of material activities that could have slipped me up
After all, a human life is a difficult one.
Maybe this new form is a subtle blessing in disguise?
A tree lives much simpler you know.
We just grow
and grow

Humans live relatively quickly 
then they keel over and die
They are fated to forgot everything of their past life. 
Yet I know I am nothing like I was before
and that this is my karma acting out, 

Without a doubt
My soul remains the same
Eternal echo from the past
carried beyond the grave
and infused in my green veins

Now I am the leaves 
Now I am the flowers
Now I am the bark
Now I am browns and reds and dark greens
And what I am not is another human being
for now I am a tree