in an alternate reality,
a bored tree tries
to render the obscure precise -
a newly born dog,
its apt fucking fate
to encounter a human ape and his mate,
upon conversation,
comes to know
that the world has actually stopped;
it questions,
then reasons
why its mother has been saying
there are no tourists this season,
it asks,
'but, how can that be,
how can food grow
if none is on the fields,
what will kids know
if they can't shout and scream
and run about till lunch is done,
then be in classrooms that aren't inside screens,
and besides,
these numbers,
they don't mean a thing,
less testing, less numbers,
more testing, more numbers',
in an alternate reality,
i'd like to be a teak tree,
standing tall and clear,
my roots strong, my trunk free,
depended on none,
threatened by none,
attached to none;