# Towers

Author: Keskron
Tags: Clean, Climb, Poem, Poetry, Roots, Sestina, Towers, animal, branch, maple, nest, reach, refuge, trees

This is a Sestina, a form of poetry that repeats six words along six stanzas. It's a tricky form to write well, and I hope I did it justice. Though I'm usually not one for repetition in words, I enjoyed working on this poem because it allowed me to move outside my comfort zone of usual rhythm.
I hope everyone who reads enjoys.

# **Towers**

**By Keskron**

When discontent, I climb the towers  
that stand in my backyard. Despite the scratches  
scattered 'mongst my arms and maple sap  
seeping into my skin, I take refuge in the nests  
of a thousand coniferous needles  
spreading upward from their roots.  
  
Meddling down below, accompanied by roots  
sneakily trying to trip me, I look to the towers  
with naïve envy. I itch and burn and scratch  
for a taste of being amidst their fleshy sap,  
every day enjoying the animals that nursed their nests  
throughout the intricate needles.  
  
Crawling like string through a needle,  
I worm through the canopy, noting the roots  
down below from the eyes of my towering,  
viridian fortress. Hearing the scratching  
of squirrels on twigs beyond my reach, their nests  
built with glue of the ever-flowing sap.  
  
Sometimes my palms caress the sap  
without warning, as if they wished to root  
themselves within the mahogany nest  
of the forest. I wish to build a great tower  
of my own, to pursue the pine needles  
with the urge to scavenge and scratch  
  

  I am an animal, biting and scratching  
and howling, searching for my roots  
within this kingdom hidden in the towers.  
I say to them, "I long to be your sap.  
I long to live in needless worry with your needles  
as my forever nest."  
  
But I hear from my perch - my nest -  
an echo in the branches and thunder in the roots  
of the giants giving birth to the needles  
and slobbering over me with their sap.  
Pensively, I hear the scratching  
Voices; I hear an answer from the towers:  
  
"Here us speak, for we are the towers  
Of your dreams. Love not the needles  
That you envy - find content in your roots."

Source: https://sofurry.com/view/956839