Earned My Place

I woke on the wind

spiraled down

from the crown

of my mother

my brothers drifted

far apart and

my heart plunged

into the soil

and I toiled

smothered by the

arms of others

bowed by the boughs

that hovered to

block my sun

gales ripped roots

from the ground

and I found purchase

in the corpses

of dead contenders

I surrendered

to no element

fought the sky

for my relevance

I run deep and high

a tower in the

canopy

my place earned by

calamity

I am weathered

and tethered

and bountiful

and beautiful.