Surely Years Ago

motionless blue gum, smooth pale shaded trunk among suspended foliage, like a message to the sky, great living column, the warmth of a day in autumn, shifting temperature as air moves like a melody that brings on tears, the numbers below and above and within, vineyards visible, cars and plans, a leaf falls and an engine starts in the parking lot, surely years ago in Holland as now God has something to tell me, more leaves now, many, and the afternoon advances, hazy blue elephant's eye half obscured, wind more lively, i know i must move but want to stay, coiled hose and flowerless agapanthus, acorns, white buildings of beauty that speak abstract accusation, the young chef's earlobe, the weight between my legs, i uncross them and then get up to go